SOS 



H.EMATOPUS. 



The dimensions of the bill and feet of the Oystercatchers vary so much, and the 

 colour so little, that I have treated the Galapagos form as a variety of H. leacopus 

 rather than of //. palliatus, but a larger series may possibly modify this conclusion. 

 I have not seen an example of the Galapagos bird. 



* * 



%* Aberrant or Black Oyster -catchers. 



H^MATOPUS UNICOLOR. 



AUSTRALIAN BLACK OYSTERCATCHER. 



Diagnosis. HjEMatopus omnino niger : pedibus rubris. 



Variations. 



Sir Walter Buller informs me that many of the museums in New Zealand possess 

 hybrids between II. unicolor and //. longirostris ; but the rarity of these intermediate forms 

 is presumptive evidence that they are barren, and that therefore the two species may be 

 regarded as specifically distinct. It appears, however, completely to intergrade with the 

 African Black Oystercatcher. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Hsematopus unicolor, Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1230. 



Hsematopus fuliginosus, Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 8 (1848). 



Hsematopus ophthalmicus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Sac. N. S. Wales, i. p. 385 (1877). 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 8 ; Gray, Zool. Voy. Erebus and Terror, pi. x. 

 Habits. — Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 217. 



Eggs. — Buller, Birds New Zealand, p. 225 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, 

 p. 52. 



