1LEMAT0PUS. 



307 



It breeds on the Falkland Islands and on the islands in the Straits of Magellan 

 (Sharpe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 15). I have examples collected by Read in Chili; 

 and Mr. Berkeley James informs me that the Santiago Museum contains examples shot 

 near Valparaiso. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



H^MATOPUS LEUCOPUS GALAPAGENSIS. 



GALAPAGOS PIED OYSTERCATCHER. 



PLematopus leucopus tarso rostroque majoribus. 



Diagnosis. 



It is possible that the Oystercatcher found on the Galapagos may prove to be only the Variations. 

 young in first or second plumage of H. leucopus, but the fact that it has a stouter bill than 

 its southern ally is difficult to reconcile with this supposition. It is so exactly intermediate 

 between H. palliatus and H. leucopus that there is some reason to suppose that it is a 

 cross between the two. 



Hsematopus galapagensis, Ridgway, Auk, 1886, p. 331. 



Synonymy. 



The Galapagos Oystercatcher resembles its Falkland-Island ally in having the back Subspecific 

 black like the head and neck, and also in having the black extending over the whole breast characters. 

 and on most of the under wing-coverts. In these respects it differs from the North- 

 American Pied Oystercatcher, which has the back brown, contrasting with the black head 

 and neck ; the dark brown on the neck only extends to the upper breast, and nearly all 

 the under wing-coverts are white. 



In the dimensions of its bill, legs, and feet, however, it agrees more closely with 

 the northern species, as the following measurements prove : — 



//. palliatus 

 H. galapagensis 

 H. leucopus 



Length of tarsus. 



2-0 to 2-3 in. 

 2-1 to 2-2 in. 

 1-8 to 2-0 in. 



Greatest depth of bill. 

 •45 to "55 in. 

 •5 in. 

 ■4 in. 



The only examples known are three skins in the museum of the Smithsonian Geographi- 

 Institution, obtained on Chatham Island, one of the Galapagos group, by Dr. Jones. £? n 



2r2 



