The Frazar Oyster-catcher 

 No. 264 



Frazar's Oyster-catcher 



A. O. U. No. 286.1. Haematopus pallia tus frazari Brewster. 



Description. — Adult: Head and neck all around slaty black; chest black, 

 spotted and tipped with white; sides of breast sooty black; lining of wings white, 

 varied by dusky; remaining underparts pure white, or with some dusky spotting on 

 lower tail-coverts; back and wings dark brown; the greater wing-coverts broadly 

 tipped with white, and forming with some of the inner secondaries a heavy transverse 

 bar; exposed primaries and tip of tail blackish; the upper tail-coverts laterally, and on 

 their distal portions centrally, white. Bill vermilion; a red ring around eye; iris orange- 

 yellow-; feet and legs pale purplish flesh-color. Immature: Much like adult, but head 

 brownish black, and brown of upperparts varied by buffy edgings. Measurements 

 (of the two extant California specimens): length 450 (17.72); wing 270 (10.63); tail 

 102 (4.02); bill 77.5 (3.05); tarsus 57 (2.24). 



Recognition Marks. — Crow size; black and white plumage with long red beak 

 and island haunts distinctive. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A mere depression in shingle 

 or gravel of upper beach, lined or not with bits of shell. Eggs: 2 or 3; ovate, pale 

 olive-buff or rarely olive-buff, spotted or marked boldly and rather sparingly with 

 brownish black and subdued under-shell markings of violet-gray. Av. size 52.3 x 37.6 

 (2.06 x 1.48); index 71. Season: May; one brood. 



Range of Hamatopus palliatus. — Coasts and adjacent islands of the Americas. 

 Upon the east coasts from Virginia to Argentina and in the West Indies; on the west 

 coasts from the northern borders of Mexico south to Chile. 



Range of H. p. frazari. — Resident upon both coasts of Lower California and on 

 the western coast of Mexico, with their adjacent islands. 



Occurrence in California. — Formerly of regular occurrence, and breeding at 

 least as far north as Santa Barbara Islands; now a "rare straggler from farther south 

 during late summer" (Howell). 



Authorities. — Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., vol. i., 

 1884, p. 112 (San Diego and Santa Barbara Ids.) ; Evermann, Auk, vol. iii., 1886, p. 92 

 (Ventura Co.); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, p. 99 (distr.). 



TO A STUDENT of world ornithology the phylogeny of the Oyster- 

 catchers makes instant appeal, by reason of its simplicity and its clear-cut 

 distinctions. There are two types of Oyster-catchers, the all-black and 

 the black-and-white. That the distinction is as ancient as it is clear-cut 

 goes without saying, for the black-and-white type has split up into nine 

 different species, or races; while the all-blacks boast at least four forms 

 entitled to specific rank. Together these 13 species occupy the major 

 coasts of the world. But the significant thing is that the two types, 

 necessarily evolved in widely sundered regions, now overlap each other 

 through immense stretches of coast-line, notably in xAustralia, South 

 America, and Africa. In three instances, at least, this overlapping 



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