430 



PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 



but is never found inland. It is the only one of its genus 

 hitherto discovered, and, from the confirmation of some of its 

 parts, one might almost be led by fancy to suppose that it 

 had borrowed the eye of the pheasant, the legs and feet of the 

 bustard, and the bill of the woodpecker. 



The oyster-catcher frequents the sandy sea-beach of New 

 Jersey and other parts of our Atlantic coast in summer, in 

 small parties of two or three pairs together. They are ex- 

 tremely shy, and, except about the season of breeding, will 

 seldom permit a person to approach within gunshot. They 

 walk along the shore in a watchful, stately manner, at times 



sion : — The bill appears generally to be more slender ; the quills want 

 the white band running in a slanting direction across, being in the 

 American specimen entirely black ; the secondaries in the American, 

 except the first, are pure white ; in the British specimen, each, except 

 the three or four last, have a black mark near the tips, which decrease 

 in size as they proceed. The whole interior surface of the wing is pure 

 white ; in the other it is black, except where the white secondaries 

 appear. In the British bird, the tail-coverts and rump are pure white, 

 the latter running upon the back, until it is hid by the scapulary and 

 back feathers. In the American, the tail-coverts only are white, form- 

 ing, as it were, a band of that colour, interrupted by the black tip of 

 the tail ; the whole rump and lower part of the back, black. 



If that before us prove distinct, this genus will contain five species, 

 distributed over the whole world, and allied so closely, that every 

 member is alike, with a different distribution only of black and white 

 to distinguish them. They are, the common European bird, perhaps 

 also American, H. ostralegus ; the black oyster-catcher, H. niger, found 

 in Australia and Africa ; H. palliatus, Temm., South American, and 

 which may turn out to be the immature state of the species we have 

 mentioned ; and the Ostralega leucojms of Lesson, found on the Malowine 

 Isles, and remarkable in having white legs and feet. The species in my 

 possession may stand as the fifth, under the name of H. arcticus.* 



As they are allied in form, so they are in habit. They frequent low 



* When this note was ■written, I had not seen the elaborate review of Cuvier's 

 "Eegne Animale" by the Prince of Musignano. He is aware that the North 

 American and European species are distinct, and mentions that the more 

 northern regions produce an additional one. I believe the bird figured by 

 W'ilson, and the skins in my possession, will prove to be this, and may stand as 

 I have named it above. That ornithologist also gives as a principal character to 

 H. palliatus, that the upper parts are " di un color fosco invece di nero" at 

 variance with the pure black and white of our specimens. — Ed. 



