1 t4 CHARADRIID.E. 



GRALLA TORES. CIIARA DRIID/E. 



PLATE CCXV. 



OYSTER CATCHER, 



H^MATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. 



The Oyster Catcher is indigenous in Great Britain, and 

 very plentiful where the locality suits its habits'; it is also 

 met with on most of the European sea-coasts, from the most 

 northern latitudes to the Mediterranean Sea, and along the 

 Atlantic Ocean as far as Senegal. In Asia it is less frequent, 

 but in America it ranges from the Hudson's Bay as far south 

 as Bermuda. The sea-coasts of Iceland, the Faro Isles, the 

 Hebrides, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, France, and 

 Spain, are its chief haunts, where the bird occurs in great 

 numbers ; the isles on the west coast of Jutland are very 

 numerously inhabited by the Oyster Catcher. About 

 inland rivers and lakes it is now and then seen, but only 

 occasionally, and under peculiar circumstances. 



The Oyster Catcher is generally considered to be a mi- 

 gratory species, but it seems not to leave Iceland at any time 

 of the year altogether, and only retires from its northern to 

 its southern extremity during the most inclement seasons of 

 the year, and the same circumstance may be observed in 

 Great Britain. In the Baltic it is said to arrive in the 



