ILEMATOPODIHE — THE OYSTER CATCHERS — ILEMATOPUS. 
113 
basal half of the secondaries, upper tail-coverts, sides of the rump, basal portion of the tail, and 
the entire lower parts pure white. Bill (in life) rich vermilion, most intense on middle third, 
basal third more scarlet, the tip yellowish ; eyelids rich vermilion ; iris bright yellow ; legs and 
feet pale dull fleshy white. 1 Young: Head and neck dusky black, the pileum and cheeks speckled 
with dull fulvous, and the feathers surrounding the base of the bill whitish ; upper parts grayish 
brown, each feather widely margined with pale fulvous or dull buff. Otherwise much like the 
adult, but upper tail-coverts tipped with butt’, bill brownish, iris brown, and feet dull livid grayish. 
Dovmy young : Head and neck dull light cinereous, finely mottled with darker, and with a narrow 
postocular line of black ; rest of upper parts light fulvous gray, finely mottled with darker, and 
relieved by two narrow stripes of black, which extend, parallel to one another, from the upper part 
of the back to the rump. Lower parts, from the jugulum back, immaculate white. Bill dusky, 
the basal half of the mandible dull orange ; iris brown ; legs and feet pale dull flesh-color. 
Total length, 17 to 21 inches ; extent, 32 to 36. Wing, 9.75 to 11.00 ; culmen, 3.00 to 3.70 ; 
tarsus, 2.05 to 2.55 ; niddle toe, 1.20 to 1.55. 
Specimens from nearly all parts of the range of the species have been compared. There is 
little, if any, variation in colors, but the dimensions vary with the individual. Two Chilian 
examples have the smallest bill, the culmen measuring respectively 3.00 and 3.25, the greatest 
depth of the bill, forward of the nostril, being .48. In an example from Isabella Island, Western 
Mexico, these measurements are 3.10 and .55. In a specimen from Yucatan, the depth of the bill 
is scarcely .45, the culmen being the same length as in the preceding. 
On the Atlantic coast the American Oyster Catcher occurs in more or less abun- 
dance, from Massachusetts to Central America. Like the 11. ostralegus of Europe, 
it probably wanders inland, especially up the inlets and estuaries of the Carolinas. 
Wilson mentions having received a stuffed specimen shot from a flock that had been 
first discovered on a beach near the entrance of Boston Harbor, and in the summer 
of 1837 a pair of these birds were procured at Marshfield by Daniel Webster and 
presented to the Boston Natural History Society. It was then no uncommon thing 
to see specimens of this bird on sale in the Boston market; but this seldom or never 
occurs now, and the bird for many years, so far as known, has been a stranger to 
Massachusetts. Mr. Boardman informs me that it is of occasional but rare occur- 
rence in the vicinity of Calais, Me., and that a single specimen has been taken on 
Grand Menan. 
An Oyster Catcher was observed by Mr. Salvin at the mouth of the Nagualete 
River, and he regarded it as being referable to this species ; he also mentions meeting 
with it on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Dr. Cooper states that he obtained two 
specimens of this bird — one at San Diego, the other on Santa Barbara Island, in 
1 Fresli colors of several specimens killed in the breeding-season at Cobb’s Island, coast of Virginia. 
VOL. I. — 15 
