H^MATOPUS. 



305 



'HvEMATOPUS PALL I AT US. 



NORTH-AMERICAN PIED OYSTER CATCHER. 



H.ematopus dorso uropygioque brunneis. 



Diagnosis. 



Notwithstanding the extraordinary breeding-range of this bird, no local races are known, Variations, 

 except that on the Galapagos Archipelago a form occurs which may possibly prove to be an 

 intermediate link between H palliatus and H. leucopus, completely connecting them. 



Hsematopus palliatus, Temminck, Man. d' Orn. ii. p. 532 (1820). 

 Hsematopus brasiliensis, Lichtenstein, Vers. Donbl. p. 73 (1823). 

 Ostralega palliata (Temm.), Lesson, Traite d'Orn. p. 548 (1831). 

 Hsematopus arcticus, Jardine, Wilson's Amer. Orn. iii. p. 35 (1832). 



Plates. — Wilson, Am. Orn. pi. 64. fig. 2. 



Habits. — Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 112. 



Eggs, described by Brewer, on p. 115 of the above-mentioned volume, as similar to those of the 

 European species, but on an average slightly larger. 



Synonymy. 



The North- American Pied Oystercatcher, like all the other Oystercatchers, has the 

 entire head and neck nearly black, and the bill red. It resembles all the Pied Oyster- 

 catchers in having the greater wing-coverts, the upper tail-coverts, and the underparts 

 below the breast white. Further, it agrees with all the Oystercatchers of the New World 

 in having pale flesh-coloured legs, and with its Falkland-Island ally in having white the 

 predominant colour of the secondaries. Its specific character consists in having the rest of 

 the plumage (i. e., the upper parts below the black neck, with the exception of the greater 

 icing-coverts and the upper tail-coverts) dark brown, instead of black. 



This species is said to be a partial resident on both coasts of Central America, breeding 

 on many of the adjacent groups of islands, as the Tres Marias Islands in the Pacific, and 

 Cuba and the Bahama Islands in the Atlantic. To the north of the latter locality it is a 

 summer visitor to the Atlantic coast of the United States, and according to Audubon to 

 Labrador. On the Pacific coast of the American continent it has not been recorded quite 

 so far north as San Francisco. How far south its range extends along the coasts of South 

 America it is difficult to determine, but it appears to range as far south as the Gulf of 



•2 it 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



