OYSTER CATCHER. 
325 
feet deep purplish-red. At times, these birds, in 
winter, are distinguished by a collar of white beneath 
the throat, which disappears as the season of incu- 
bation approaches, but it is occasionally only more 
or less marked by white tips to the feathers. In 
the young birds of the first plumage, the dark parts 
are all of a duller black, approaching in some parts 
to brownish-black ; and on the back and scapulars, 
the feathers are tipped with ochreous ; the tips of 
the white upper tail-coverts are barred with black 
and ochreous ; the colours of the bill and legs are 
not so brilliant as in the old birds, that of the latter 
being of a livid grey. We have seen specimens of 
a dull white or fawn colour. 
