ILEMATOPTTS. 



303 



Circle. It has been recorded from Greenland, and is a resident in Iceland, the Faroes, and 

 probably St. Kilda. It is a summer •visitor to the shores of the Baltic, but on the coasts of 

 North Germany, Great Britain, and France it is a resident. In the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean it is principally known as passing through on spring and autumn migration ; but a 

 few remain to breed in the delta of the Rhone and on the Adriatic coast, where also a few 

 remain during winter. It winters on both coasts of Africa, on the west as far south as 

 Senegambia, and on the east as far south as Mozambique. It is a resident in the Caucasus ; 

 but to the valleys of the South-Russian rivers, and to the lakes and rivers of Western 

 Siberia and Turkestan, it is a summer visitor, wintering on the Mekran coast and the west 

 coasts of India as far south as Ceylon. 



H^MATOPUS OSCULANS. 



JAPANESE PIED OYSTERCATCHEB. 



H^ematofus primarise sextse (nee tertise, nee quartae, nee quintae) pogonio externo macula alba Diagnosis, 

 ornato. 



No local races of this species are known. 



Variations. 



Hsematopus osculans, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 405. 



Synonymy. 



Plates. — Unfigured. 



Habits.— Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 261 ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1875, p. 129. 



Eggs, in the Swinhoe collection, resemble those of the European species, but are much less 

 spotted than usual. 



Literature. 



The Japanese Pied Oystercatcher only differs from the British species, with which we are Specific 

 familiar, in having on an average a longer bill, in having the upper tail-coverts more 

 constantly tipped with black, and in having much less white on the wings. The white on 

 the outside web of the primaries does not appear until the sixth quill, and on the inside web 

 not until the second quill ; whereas in the European bird the white on the outside web 

 appears on the third quill, and that on the inside web on the first. 



The range of the Japanese Pied Oystercatcher extends for perhaps a hundred miles up Geographi. 

 the A moor, and northwards to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, between East Siberia and ™ 

 Kamtschatka. Southwards it reaches the shores of North China, and in winter those of 



cal distribu- 



