NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



161 



^'Ornithologist and Oologist" for August, 1887, gives ua an interesting account of a 

 pair of these birds moving their eggs when their nest was discovered. While Mr. 

 Hoxie was watching the parents they carried the eggs about one hundred yards from 

 the old nest, and deposited them safely in a new nest which he saw the birds pre- 

 pare. The female lifted the eggs between her legs and successfully carried them 

 away. 



286. 1. PRAZAR'S OYSTER-CATCHER. Hcematopus frazari Brewst. Geog. 

 Dist. — Lower California (both coasts), north to Los Coronados Islands. 



Mr. William Brewster has dedicated this new species to M. Abbott Frazar, who 

 secured three specimens north of La Paz, on the Gulf of California. It was said to 

 be common in the locality and evidently preparing to breed on the sandy islands and 

 shores of the gulf. It has been seen on Los Corronados Islands, San Quentin Bay, 

 Cerros Island; also at Magdalena Bay, where it was common, and on Santa Margarita 

 Island. Here they mated in January. They feed upon small bivalves. Mr. Brewster 

 describes this species as differing from H. palliatus in having a stouter, more de- 

 pressed bill, little or no white on the eyelids, the back, scapulars and wlng-coverets 

 richer and deeper brown.* I have no description concerning the nesting and eggs 

 of this new species. 



287. BLACK OYSTER-CATCHER. Hwmatopus hachmani Aud. Geog. Diet.— 

 Pacific coast of North America from Lower California north to the Aleutian Islands 

 and across to the Kurilas. 



Bachman's Oyster-catcher, as it is called, is a characteristic bird of the Pacific 

 <ioast, being more common to the north 

 than to the south. It is said to be par- 

 tial to rocky coasts and islands and not ■ 

 always met with on sand beaches. It 

 is common in Alaska, where it is one 

 of the characteristic birds of the sea- 

 shore, and it is also a summer resident 

 of the entire Aleutian chain of islands. 

 Dall found it breeding the latter part 

 of June on Range Island, one of the 

 Shumagin group. Here he found two 

 nests. In both cases the eggs were 

 placed directly upon the gravel on the 

 beach; one contained two eggs, the 

 other one. They were all partly incu- 

 bated. The eggs of this species are two 

 or three in number, light olive-buffi, 



speckled or spotted with brownish-black and purplish-gray. Their average size is 

 2.20x1.52 inches. 



287. Black Ovster-catcheri 



[288.] MEXICAN JACANA. Jacana spinosa (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— Valley of 

 the Lower Rio Grande, Texas, south into Central America, Panama, Cuba, Hayti. 



A bird which combines the characters of the Plover and the Rail, but out- 

 wardly distinguished from either by the excessive development of the toes and par- 

 ticularly the claws. These are slender, compressed, nearly or quite straight, that of 



* For a complete description see The Auk, V, pp. 84-85. 



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