PIED OYSTERCATCHER. 
When they have young in the nest, they dash over the heads of any 
intruders, screaming loudly and making all sorts of endeavours to draw them 
away from the scene. 
They are sociable birds and move with other shore-roving species, such 
as Curlews, Sandpipers, etc. They prefer shores with stones and reef outcrops, 
as among these they find most of their food of molluscs, etc. The same 
author* says : “ Its flight is rapid and strong ; frequently when on the wing 
it will utter its loud call notes, as though endeavouring to attract the attention 
of others of its species.” 
Mr. Charles Belcher reports : “ Common as it is on all the islands of 
Bass Straits, and though it is also found on the shores of Eastern Victoria, 
I have only once met with it on the stretch of seaboard from Port Phillip 
Heads to Cape Otway. The eggs of this and H. niger fuliginosus are 
almost impossible to distinguish from each other, so that it is very necessary 
to see the birds if one wants to insure identity. We found, in November 
1901, that these two species were well distributed over aU the Eurneaux 
group of Islands, the ‘ Sooty ’ being rather more plentiful.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has collected birds at Edithburgh, Yorke Peninsula, 
South Australia, and also found them plentiful on the sand-spit in Venus 
Bay, in February, 1910 ; it is also numerous at Murray Mouth. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor informs me that Kangaroo Island and all the islets and 
shores of the two gulfs of South Australia are ideal spots where it may be 
seen running along the shores and wading in the shallows, sticking its bill 
down to its full depth in search of the deeper living crustaceans and insects 
always plentiful in the sandy slopes of the beaches. Its two beautifully 
spotted eggs are placed on the bare sand without any pretence at nest- 
building, the chief means of their protection being the scanty surroundings 
of the locality : there may be a few pieces of seaweed or some shingle oV small 
stones about and these assist in blending with the spots on the eggs and 
make the protective mimicry complete. 
As they make their nests in the open they can see the approach of an 
intruder at a distance ; thej’^ then run away and keep out on the rocks or 
shore till danger is past, returning to the eggs very cautiously. 
The bird figured and described was collected by Stalker on the Burdekin 
River, Queensland, on April 25th, 1907. 
The forms and distribution of Australian Pied Oystercatchers cannot be 
said to be well known. In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum 
H. longirostris was accepted for the Australian and New Zealand bird, which 
was differentiated from H, ostralegus by “ having no white on the inner webs 
* Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 123, 1910. 
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