PIED OYSTERCATCHER. 
I have reproduced these as they appear to be based on the distribution 
given in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, where a number of 
birds from India are catalogued under H. ostmlegus. 
The chief characters of this form in the adult summer-plumage are : 
the red bill ; and feet and head, neck, breast, wings and end of tail black : 
the remainder of the under- and upper-surface pure white, the secondaries 
and a large patch on the inner webs of the primaries being of that colour. 
The immature-plumage is brownish where the adult is black, but in addition 
there is a white crescent-shaped mark on the throat. This latter is also 
sometimes stated to be the winter-plumage, but all the specimens I have 
seen were undoubtedly immature birds. 
Swinhoe’s description gives the points of difference between his H, osculans 
and the Western bird : the longer bill, less white on the primaries, and dark 
tips to upper tail-coverts. The immature specimens I have noted from China 
and Japan have no white mark on the throat. 
All the Indian birds I have seen, including those recorded in the Catalogue 
of the Birds in the British Museum, have been killed in winter and are 
undoubtedly immature specimens : they have much more white on the 
throat than West European juveniles, also noticeably longer bills. They 
may belong to a race breeding in Turkestan (see A.O.U. Checklist) but should 
not be referred to H. ostralegus ostralegus. 
Hceinatopus ostralegus osculans Swinhoe ; China and Japan. 
Hcenmtopus ostralegus picatus King ; North-west and North Australia. 
Near H. o. osculans but always separable by the presence of a narrow black 
edging on the inner wing, and generally by the absence or small amount of 
white on the inner webs of the primaries. In some cases also the black of 
the upper-back extends on to the lower-back. 
HcBmatopus ostralegus longirostris VieiUot ; East and South Australia. 
Differs from the preceding in the entire absence of the white markings on the 
inner webs of the primaries, in having more black on the inner portion of 
the wing and the black of the upper-back extending on to the lower-back, 
while the bases of the rump-feathers show dark markings. 
Of this form H. australasianus Gould is an absolute synonym, while I 
would tentatively also cite my H. longirostris 7nattingleyi as a synonym, but 
also note that in addition to my North Queensland specimens — one from 
Dunk Island, another from Wednesday Island, two from the Tiandoe Islands, 
and one from St. Aignan Island, South-east New Guinea, all agree in being 
smaller, and also in having less black on the inner bend of the wing. 
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