IREMAT0P0DIDJ3 — THE OYSTER CATCHERS — HyEMATOPUS. Ill 
The changes of plumage with age are thus described by Macgillivray : “After the first moult 
the black parts of the plumage are tinged with brown, more especially the quills and tail. There 
is an obscure half-ring of grayish-white across the fore part of the neck, the tips of the white 
feathers being black. The legs are pale livid gray, the claws brown, whitish at the base ; the 
iris crimson ; and the bill as in the adult, but a little more dusky toward the end. It appears to 
me that the younger birds only have the white marks on the neck, and that these gradually 
disappear each successive moult, until in very old birds there exist only faint indications of 
them, the feathers being merely whitish at the base. The chin, which is slightly mottled with 
white in the young birds, becomes at length pure black.” 
The National Museum possesses but a single European specimen of this species, an adult male 
from Pomerania. Besides this, however, there are two examples (an adult male and female) from 
Ning Po, China, and one from New Zealand. None of these possess the slightest trace of the 
white markings described by Macgillivray, the entire neck being glossy black. 
The Pied Oyster Catcher from New Zealand and that from China have both been separated from 
H. ostralegus, the former as II. longirostris, Yieillot, the latter as II. osculans, Swinhoe. With 
the specimens before us, however, we are unable to appreciate any differences beyond slight ones 
of proportions, the measurements being as follows : — 
Wing. 
Culmen. 
Depth 
of bill 
at base. 
Tarsus. 
Middle 
toe. 
No. 56899 
3 ad. 
Pomerania, 
10.25 
3.10 
.55 
2.00 
1.40 
“ 85740 
3 “ 
Ning Po, 
10.00 
3.35 
.55 
2.00 
1.30 
“ 85741 
9 “ 
“ 
10.10 
2.85 
.50 
2.15 
1.35 
“ 66276 
9 “ 
New Zealand, 
10.10 
3.50 
.60 
2.10 
1.25 
The differences 
of measurements indicated above 
are not so 
great as 
have been 
found in a 
larger series of H. palliatus, and we are unable to discover any differences of plumage. 
The Oyster Catcher of Europe is of occasional occurrence in Iceland and Greenland, 
and claims, on that account alone, to be included among the birds of our fauna. It is 
found along the entire Atlantic sea-coast of Europe, is to be seen around the shores 
of Great Britain, from the Scilly Islands to the Shetland, and is common in Denmark, 
Sweden, and on the ivest shores of Norway, from spring to autumn. Pennant states 
that this species is to be found along the northern shores of Russia and Siberia, 
where it breeds on the great Arctic flats, and that it even extends its range to 
Kamtschatka. 
This species also inhabits all the coasts of the southern portion of Europe, passing 
to North Africa by the line of Italy and Sicily. It is included by Temminck among 
the birds of Japan, and by Reinhardt among those of Greenland, on the strength of 
three specimens — one sent from Julianehaab in 1847, another from Godthaab in 
1851, and a third found in a collection from Nenortalik. Mr. Alfred Newton states 
that it is more common in the south than in the north of Iceland, and Faber consid- 
ered it resident throughout the year, as it remained in large flocks during the winter 
in the south. It is most abundant on the sea-coast, but was found by Herr Preyer on 
some of the inland waters. 
In Great Britain and Ireland it is a common and a well-known species. It appears 
to prefer the sandy shores of bays and wide inlets bounded with banks of shingle 
and other localities favorable for the production of the various kinds of mollusks 
upon which it principally feeds. Its peculiar beak, truncated and wedge-like in its 
shape, and having a sharp vertical edge, is admirably well adapted for insertion 
between the two portions of bivalve shells and for forcing them open. The Oyster 
Catcher is also able with this powerful beak to detach univalve shells and limpets 
from the surface of rocks, and does this easily and rapidly. Its food appears to be 
mollusca of all kinds, worms, Crustacea, and marine insects. 
