Ordee LARIFORMES.] 



(7^ 



-0UA^d/oucUui 



[Family STE£€ORARIIDJE. 



H^MATOPUS LONGIROSTRIS. 



(PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.) 



Hsematopus longirostris, Vieill. ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 16. 



Young of the First Year.— Differs from the adult in having the white of the under-parts 

 intermixed with the black in about equal proportions, there being no pectoral line of demarcation. 

 The lining of the wings is varied with white, in an irregular way, down the line of the humerus ; 

 the quills are greyish-white towards the base on their under- surface, and the under tail-feathers 

 are tipped with white. The secondary coverts are white in their outer portion, but on one web 

 only, the alar-bar being somewhat broken along the edges ; and the under tail-coverts are narrowly 

 margined with white. The specimen from which these notes are taken was captured at the 

 Pelorus Sound in the month of January. 



This fine species of Oyster-Catcher is to be found, sparingly distributed, on the coasts of New 

 Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia, but does not appear to range further north than the southern 

 shores of New Guinea. 



As it is always pleasing to me to see Dr. Finsch's name associated with the New Zealand 

 avifauna, for which he has done so much, I am sorry that I cannot admit Hcematopus finschi, as 

 characterised by Yon Martens (Om. M.B. v., p. 190, 1897) on the authority of a specimen from 

 Saltwater Creek, Canterbury, and now in the Natural History Museum of Hamburg. He 

 describes it as differing from the typical H. longirostris in the white markings on some of the 

 primaries and the total whiteness of the tertiaries ; also by having white flanks, although he adds 

 that he does not attach much value to this last character, there being two almost exactly 

 similar specimens in the Berlin Museum in which the flank spots are varied with black. I 

 conclude that the differences indicated are merely individual ones and due to partial albinism. 







HCEMATOPUS UNICOLOIl. 



(BLACK OYSTER-CATCHER.) 



Haematopus unicolor, Wagler; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 18. 



In February, at the mouth of the Ohau Biver, I saw a pair of these birds attended by two young 

 ones, which perpetually ran after their parents, after the manner of young Sea-gulls. I particularly 

 noticed that the young birds were pied, but in dull plumage, like the specimens in the Canterbury 

 Museum. 



