H2EMAT0P0DID/E — THE OYSTER CATCHERS — THEMATOPUS. 
117 
means shy, but would sit on the rocks until he could almost touch it ; then, utter- 
ing a low whistling cry, it would dart off to another skerry, repeating the same 
manoeuvre again and again. 
Dr. Cooper regards the Black Oyster Catcher as an eminently characteristic bird 
of our Pacific coast. He adds that it is more common to the northward than to 
the south, and that it is particularly partial to rocky coasts and islands, being rarely 
met with on sand beaches. He found a few on Santa Barbara Island, in May, 1863, 
and discovered a nest on the 3d of June containing four fresh eggs, supposed to 
have been a second laying. They were in a slight depression in the gravel, close 
to the edge of a rocky cliff, against which the waves were dashing almost to its top, 
and a very slight roll would have sent the water over them. The old birds, unlike 
the Plovers, showed great solicitude for their eggs, both of them flying round close 
to him, with a loud whistle, which was their only cry. 
Dr. Cooper describes their eggs as measuring from 2.28 to 2.40 inches in length, 
and from 1.50 to 1.53 inches in breadth. They have a brownish-white ground, 
sparsely blotched with markings of a light and of a darker brown. 
Dr. Cooper thinks that this species does not breed in any of the islands south of 
Santa Barbara, as he met with none of them during the summer, and saw none along 
the southern coast. He has noticed this species on the Farallon Islands in June, and 
believes that this is the bird referred to by Dr. Heermann as II. Townsendii of Audu- 
bon, inasmuch as this latter has never been seen north of Panama. This last-named 
species is one that may readily be recognized by its blood-red legs ; and Dr. Cooper 
ventures the suggestion that Townsend really obtained his specimen of it from 
South America, as it is now known that he did several other species of birds wrongly 
credited to our coast. Dr. Cooper adds that there appears to be really very little, if 
any, difference in the habits or cries of the niger and those of the palliatus, both of 
which species associate together during the breeding-season. 
Mr. Dali mentions this bird as a summer visitor to the Aleutian Islands, and says 
that it was seen both in Malaslrka and in the Shumegins. The eggs, partly incubated, 
were obtained on Range Island, Popoff Strait, June 23, 1872. There were two in one, 
and one in another, nest, these being mere depressions in the gravel of the beach, 
with no lining whatever. The birds were exceedingly wary, and kept entirely out of 
gunshot. When disturbed they uttered a peculiar low whistle, which, once heard, is 
likely to be remembered ; and they have a habit of standing on the beach or rocks a 
little way apart, and whistling, one calling and the other answering, keeping this up 
for half an hour at a time. It is one of the most peculiar birds of that region, having 
a grave, solemn, and stilted gait, and bobbing its head up and down with every step 
as it moves. 
Mr. H. W. Henshaw met with the Black Oyster Catcher in considerable numbers on 
Santa Cruz Island, and was informed that they occur on other islands of that group, 
frequenting the little islets that are separated from the main island by narrow chan- 
nels, and finding these breeding-grounds safe from the intrusion of their enemies. 
Their short stout legs and feet adapt them for a life among the rocks, and they 
obtain much of their food among the kelp and seaweed which cover the slippery 
rocks and shelter various crustaceans and mollusks. Their long, strong, and wedge- 
like bill is admirably adapted for prying open bivalve shells. On Santa Cruz Island 
they seemed to obtain a plentiful supply of food by feeding, along the sandy beaches, 
on objects cast up by the waves or floating on the surface. Their movements ap- 
peared rather clumsy, and as if they felt a little out of place. The birds were not 
at all shy, and permitted Mr. Henshaw to approach them within thirty yards as 
