304 



H^MATOPTTS. 



South China. They still appear to retain some tradition of their western origin, and 

 occasionally a bird will attempt to find its way back again across country, and appear as 

 an unwonted visitor in Burma or Arrakan. 



H^EMATOPUS L0NGIR0STRIS. 



AUSTRALIAN PIED OYSTERCATCHER. 

 Diagnosis. H^ematopus wopygio albo : primariis haud albo maculatis. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known, but it is said to interbreed with H. unicolor, the 

 intermediate form thus produced being probably a barren hybrid. 



Hsematopus longirostris, Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xv. p. 410 (1817). 

 Hsematopus picatus, Vigors, King's Voy. Austr., Append, p. 420 (1826). 

 Hsematopus australasianus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 155. 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 7. 



Habits. — Potts, Trans. New Zealand Inst. ii. p. 69 ; Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 215. 



Eggs. — Campbell, Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, p. 52. 



The Australian Pied Oystercatcher may be recognized by its having a white rump, but 

 no white on the primaries. It differs somewhat more from our birds than its Japanese 

 ally. Both the eastern birds have light red legs, but the Australian species has lost all 

 trace of white on its primaries, and the black of the mantle is also more developed, 

 extending some distance on the lower back. 



This species is a resident on the coasts of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia, but 

 does not range further north than the southern shores of New Guinea and the other islands 

 immediately to the north of Australia. 



Potts remarks that it frequently ascends the rivers, sometimes as far as seventy miles 

 from the coast, to breed. In this respect it agrees with its two nearest allies, // ostralrgus 

 and H. osculans, but differs from its more distantly connected relations in the New World, 

 Jl.paUiatus and H. leucopus, which are said to be strictly coast-birds. 



