THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
d’un noir profond, et d’un noir branatre partout chez les jeunes : bee et 
pieds d’un rouge de corail ; tour des yeux rouge, taille un peu plus forte 
que notre Huiterier. On le trouve dans I’Afrique meridionale et dans 
r Austral- Asie.” 
In the Isis, 1832, p. 1230, Wagler noticed Hce^natopus unicolor, ex 
Forster’s MS., in connection with the New Zealand form. 
Though no description was here given, this has commonly been cited 
as the primary reference to the name. It was not described until the pubh- 
cation, under the editorship of Lichtenstein, of Forster’s Descr. Anim., in 1844. 
When Gould wrote his Birds of Australia he named the Austrahan bird 
H. fuliginosus, stating that upon comparison with specimens from the Cape 
of Good Hope, Cape Horn and elsewhere, he found them to differ, but did 
not state in what respect. 
Bonaparte, in the Coynptes Rendus Sci. (Paris), Vol. XLIII., p. 420, 
1856, placed the Black Oystercatchers in Reichenbach’s section Melanihyx, 
accepting ater Vieill. for the American form, unicolor Wagl. for the New 
Zealand one, fuliginosus Gould for the Australian, and niger Cuv. for the 
African one, and noted after each respectively the new names : H. niger 
americanus, H. niger oceanicus, H. niger australasianus and H. niger africanus. 
These names do not seem to have been considered as vahdly proposed, and it 
is fortunate that there is now no need for consideration, as it is agreed to 
restrict Temminck’s H. niger to the South African bird. 
In the Proc. Linn. 8oc. N.8.W., Vol. I., 1875, Castelnau and Ramsay 
wrote on a collection of birds from the Norman River, Gulf of Carpentaria, 
Queensland, and on p. 384 included : — 
Hoemato'pus, nov. sp.? 
? Hcematorms niger Cuv. On examining the Hcematopi obtained in North Australia, 
we find one which differs from all hitherto recorded Australian species, in having a con- 
siderable bare space roxmd the eye ; this space is wider in front and above, than behind 
or below the eye, and, like the bill, is of a reddish carmine colour. The plumage is of 
a deep sooty black, with little or no gloss, except perhaps on the head and neck ; the wing 
and tail feathers are of a blackish-brown ; legs deep carmine red. Total length from fore- 
head to tip of tail 15 in. ; bill from forehead 3.2 in. ; from 'posterior margin of nostril 2.5 ; 
from gape 2.85 ; height, about middle of, 0.5 ; width, 0.3; width of upper mandible at 
the posterior margin of nostril, 0.5 ; wing 10 in. ; tail 4.9 ; tarsus 2.1 ; mid-toe 1.9. 
This species is smaller on the whole, and the neck shorter than either of the Australian 
species ; it comes nearest to H. fuliginosus of Gould, but may be at once distinguished 
therefrom, by the large bare space round the eye and the short bill. It is, moreover, smaller 
in all its measurements. Should this species prove to be undescribed we propose for it 
the specific name of opthalmicus. 
We regret that from want of a series of the sooty oyster-catchers from other comitries 
to compare with, we are at present unable to determine this question. 
When Ramsay in 1877 sank Gould’s fuliginosus as a synonym of unicolor 
Wagler, he retained as distinct ophthalmicus, but when Sharpe wrote the Cat. 
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