The Black Oyster-catcher 



amounts to joint occupation of territory during the breeding season; and 

 there are stations, for example, King Island, in Bass Strait, off the coast of 

 Australia, where both species breed in indiscriminate proximity. And, 

 lastly, there is occasion to believe that some hybrids have resulted from 

 the association of these long-separated stocks. 



The familiar species of the California coast is, of course, H. bach- 

 mani, an all-black type. H. frazari, resident on the coasts of Lower 

 California, is a black-and-white, closely related to and perhaps only a 

 subspecies of the dominant H. palliatus, of eastern North America, 

 Mexico (both coasts), and South America. By reason of its conspicuous 

 coloration, as well as its excessive noisiness, the Frazar Oyster-catcher has 

 suffered a fatal prominence. Its former appearances on the Channel 

 Islands (as far north as Ventura County) were concluded by an early 

 martyrdom, and the species is rare even in its primitive fortresses on Los 

 Coronados Islands. 



Owing chiefly to unsettled political conditions, the ornithology of 

 Baja California remains unwritten. Some few notes we have from early 

 ornithological explorers. Thus, one by Walter E. Bryant written thirty 

 years ago 1 : "I found this Oyster-catcher tolerably common at Mag- 

 dalena Bay and northward, and on Santa Margarita Island they were 

 mated in January. They were rather shy, running rapidly on the 

 beach, and if approached, taking wing with loud, clear, whistling notes, 

 and after flying some distance, alighting again at the water's edge. 

 Their food was chiefly small bivalves found on the gravelly beach." 



No. 265 



Black Oystercatcher 



A. O. U. No. 287. Haematopus bachmani Audubon. 



Description. — Adult: Head and neck slaty black; remaining plumage sooty 

 black, lightest (dark sooty brown) on back. Bill and eyelids vermilion; irides yellow; 

 feet and legs pale old rose or flesh-color; nails black. Immature: Sooty black varied 

 by rusty edging of feathers. Bill shorter, pointed, dusky. Downy young: Ashy gray, 

 striped above with black. Length of adult about 444.5 (17.50); wing 254 (10.00); 

 tail 1 14.3 (4.50); bill 76.2 (3.00); tarsus 57.2 (2.25). 



Recognition Marks. — Crow size; uniform black plumage; vermilion beak. 



Nesting. — Nest: A pint of rock-flakes, placed on rock or reef just above the 

 tide-line. Eggs: 2 or 3; olive-buff of varying shade, spotted boldly but often sparingly 

 with black and dark brown, with some imbedded markings of violet-gray. Av. of 

 17 eggs in the M. C. O. coll.: 56.1 x 38.9 (2.21 x 1.53); index 69.2. Season: c. 

 June 1st; one brood. 



l Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2nd series. Vol. 2, 1889. pp. 275, 276. 

 1346 



