361 



high water-mark. They are of a greyish cream-coloured ground, generally, but rather 

 sparsely, covered with coarse, irregular, wavy black and dark brown broken lines : axis 2" 6'", 

 diam. 1" 9'". My son found it breeding on Robben Island about Christmas 1865." Andersson 

 (B. of Damara Land, p. 277) states that " it makes no nest, but deposits its eggs on the shingle 

 of the beach ; these are four in number, of a drab colour, with eccentric streaks and spots of 

 very dark brown." 



In working out the synonymy of the present species, I have found no small difficulty in 

 deciding on which specific name it should rightly bear. Temminck (I. c.) was the first to refer 

 to the African species (which he did not, however, separate from the Australian form) under the 

 name of " Hcematopus niger, Cuvier " ; but on referring to the first edition of the ' Regne Animal ' 

 (i. p. 469, 1817) I find that Cuvier gives no name to the African bird, and merely remarks, 

 under Hcematopus ostralegus, " On en trouve . . . . au Cap une a plumage tout noir " ; and in 

 his second edition (i. p. 5U4, 1829) he describes the Australian species under the name 

 Hcematopus niger. 



In 1823 Lichtenstein, in his list of the duplicates in the Berlin Museum (I. c), included, 

 without any description, an Oyster-catcher under the name of Ostralegus capensis, which has by 

 some naturalists been supposed to be the African Black Oyster-catcher; but on making enquiries 

 at the Berlin Museum I find that there is no specimen there marked by Lichtenstein as being 

 his Ostralegus capensis, and it is there generally believed that under this name he refenred to a 

 specimen of the Common Oyster-catcher. Under these circumstances capensis cannot be used as 

 a specific name for the present species. On the other hand, however, there are two specimens 

 of the African Black Oyster-catcher in the Berlin Museum, both from South Africa, which are 

 marked by Lichtenstein " Hcematopus unicolor, Forst.," and doubtless his Hcematopus unicolor 

 (Nomencl. Av. p. 93, 1854) refers to these two birds ; but again, as the specific title of unicolor 

 was preoccupied by Wagler (Hcematopus unicolor, Forst. in MS., Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1230) 

 for the New Zealand Oyster-catcher, it cannot be used for the African bird. In 1856 Bonaparte 

 gave the name of Hcematopus moguini to the present species as distinguished from the Australian, 

 which he refers to under the name of Hcematopus fuliginosus, and from the South American 

 species, which he calls Hwmatopus niger ; consequently Bonaparte's specific name will stand for 

 the African species. 



The nearest ally to the present species is the Australasian Black Oyster-catcher, Hcematopus 

 unicolor, which differs in having the bill more elongated and the legs (according to Gould) 

 brick-red instead of deep crimson. There are four known species of the Black Oyster-catcher, 

 two inhabiting the Old World and two the New World, viz. : — 



Hcematopus niger, Pall., which inhabits the Pacific coasts of North America. This bird 

 has the head, neck, and jugulum black tinged with plumbeous, the rest of the plumage being 

 blackish brown ; the iris is yellow, and the legs pale flesh-coloured. 



Hcematopms ater (Less.), inhabits the Pacific coast of South America, not occurring north of 

 Chili, the Falkland Islands, and the east coast to Tambo Point. It is said to differ from 

 U. niger in having the bill shorter and deeper. 



Hcematojms moquini, of which full particulars are given above. It has the iris bright red 

 and the legs deep red, the plumage being deep black without any brown. 



