H.EMATOPUS. BIRDS. PRESSIROSTRES. 
115 
Gen. LXXVII. HiEMATOPUS. Oyster-catcher. — 
Bill much longer than the head, straight, compressed. 
Toes flat below. The first quill longest. 
167. H. Ostralegus. Common Oyster-catcher. — Bill, iri- 
des, and margin of the eye-hds, scarlet. 
H. Bellonii, Will. Orn. 220. Sibb. Scot. 19. — H. ost. Linn, Syst. i, 
257* Penn. Brit. Zool. ii. 482. Temm. Orn. ii. 531 — Sea Pie, Tir- 
nia, Trillechan ; iV, Chalder, Slceldrake. — Common on the sea-shore. 
Length 17, breadth 32 inches ; weight 16 ounces. Bill 3 inches long; legs 
reddish ; claws hooked, hollow and black. Head, neck, upper part of the back, 
scapulars, and upper wing-covers, black ; lower part of the back, rump, great- 
er wing-covers, and belly, white. Quills black, with white on the inner webs. 
Tail black at the tip, white at the base. In winter there is a white crescent 
on the throat, and a white spot under the eye. Female like the male Nest, 
of a few lichens, on rocks or gravel. Eggs 2, ohve-brown, blotched with 
black — In the young the black is dusky ; the feathers with brownish margins. 
— Feeds on shell-fish, which it detaches and penetrates with its stout bill. 
Though usually considered as a shore bird, I have observed it breeding on 
the islands in the Tummel at Moulincarn, between Dunkeld and Blair 
Athol. 
Gen. LXXVIII. OTIS. Bustard. — Bill about the length 
of the head, incurvated. Nostrils exposed. The third 
quill the longest. 
168. O. Tarda. Great Bustard. — Bill compressed at the 
base. Head and neck ash-coloured. 
Will. Orn. 129. Sibb, Scot. 16. Linn. Syst. i. 264. Penn. Brit. Zool. i. 
284. Temm, Orn. ii. 506 — Resident in Norfolk. 
Length 4, breadth 9 feet ; weight 25 pounds. Bill greyish-white ; legs 
black, irides reddish-brown. A tuft of long feathers on each side of the lower 
mandible. Above, yellowish-red, with black rays: beneath, white. Quills 
black, tipped with white. Tail of 20 feathers, ferruginous, barred with black ; 
the outer ones nearly white. Furnished with a gular pouch for holding wa- 
ter. Female destitute of the long moustaches and gular pouch. — Nest 
on the bare ground Eggs 2, olive-brown, blotched with rusty and grey 
spots. Young buff-coloured, barred with black above. — Feeds on green corn, 
the tops of turnips, and clover. Greatly reduced in its geographical distri- 
bution, by having been long persecuted by the sportsman. In England it is 
now almost confined to Norfolk. In Scotland it seems to have been found in 
the days of Boece : Sibbald, however, seems to view it as rare in his day; and it 
is now reduced to the rank of a straggler. One was shot in 1803, in Murray- 
shire by William Young, Esq. of Boroughhead. 
STRAGGLER. 
O. Tetrax. Little Bustard Temm. Orn. ii. 507 — This species, which is only 
about 16 inches in length, has occurred in England five or six times, as no- 
ticed in the works of Montagu, Bewick, and Selby. It is chiefly a native of 
southern and eastern Europe. 
