80 THE BIRDS 
FAMILY HAEMATOPODID/E.—OYSTER- 
CATCHERS. 
GENUS HAMATOPUS. 
[286]. Hematopus palliatus (Temminck). Oyster- 
catcher. 
[Sea Crow]. 
Rancre.—Coasts of North and South America from 
Texas, Louisiana, and Virginia (formerly New Jersey) 
south on both coasts of Mexico to the West Indies, southern 
Brazil and central Chile; casual north to New Brunswick. 
Breeds probably throughout its range. 
This is the next bird to become extinct on our Virginia 
coast, for it is truly a scarce bird now. Formerly it was 
fairly plentiful all along the coastal, and island sandy 
beaches, but of late years it has become so scarce that none 
of our islands can boast of over one or two pair of breed- 
img birds, some not that. This large, showy bird fell an 
easy mark to the spring gunners, breeding as it did during 
the height of the spring migration of “beach birds,”’ from 
May 10th to 25th. Nesting among the sand dunes or 
flat beaches back from the ocean, over which the spring 
gunners tramped dailv, these birds were right in the line 
of travel, so to speak, and were either killed, or their nests 
broken up. As they laid only from two to three eggs a 
setting, the increase has been less than decrease, and they 
have become fewer and fewer year after year. It was my 
good fortune to find on Fisherman’s Island on June 22nd, 
1900, a set of four eges of this species, the only set of this 
