378 
BIEDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
reddish ; edge o£ the eyelid orange-red ; legs rich flesh-colour with a 
purplish-rose tinge. {Dresser.) 
Length 18 inches^ tail 4*5^ wing 10, tarsus 2, bill from gape 3*7. 
The above description is taken from a male bird shot in Arrakan and 
presented to me by Mr. Shopland, Port Officer of Akyab. It is in many 
respects intermediate between the English and the Australian species. In 
H. ostralegus the under wing-coverts and the upper tail-coverts are pure 
white and the shafts of the primaries are more or less white. In H, longi- 
rostris the under wing- coverts are a mixture of black and white in about 
equal proportions_, the upper tail-coverts are tipped with black, and the 
shafts of the primaries are all black. In the Arrakan bird, the only 
one I have ever seen from Burmah, it will be observed that while the 
under wing-coverts are pure white, the upper tail-coverts are tipped with 
black, and that the shafts of the primaries are black except for about one 
inch of their length near the tip. H. osculans from China is similar to 
the Burmese bird in many respects, and occupies a somewhat intermediate 
position between it and H. longirostris, but it cannot, in my opinion, be 
maintained as a distinct species. 
The Oystercatcher was received by Mr. Blyth from Arrakan_, and more 
recently Mr. Shopland procured a specimen. Like the last species it is 
not unlikely to occur along the whole coast of Burmah in the winter. 
It inhabits the whole of Europe and the coasts of Africa as far south as 
the equator ; it also occurs on all the sea-coast line of Asia, extending to 
the Malay islands, where it meets the Australian H, longirostyns. 
The Oystercatcher is found chiefly on the sea-coast and the mouths of 
large rivers. It feeds on shell-fish, small crabs and marine insects j and it 
does not usually eat oysters and large bivalves, as its trivial name implies. 
It breeds in northern countries, laying three or four eggs in a depression 
in the shore close to high-water mark ; the eggs are buff" marked with 
blackish brown. 
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