Order CHARADBJIFORMES 
Family HJEMATOPODID^. 
No. 162. 
H^MATOPUS NIGER OPTHALMICUS. 
BARE-EYED BLACK OYSTERCATCHER. 
H^matoptjs OPTHALMiCFS Castelnau and Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., Vol. I., 
p. 385, 1877 ; North Queensland. 
Hcematopus opthalmicus Castelnau and Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. I., p. 385, 
1877 ; Ramsay, ib., Vol. II., p. 197, 1878 ; id., Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 19, 1888 ; 
Legge, Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Vol. IV., p. 983, 1892. 
Hcematopus fuliginosus Hill, Emu, Vol. X., p. 264, 1911. 
Hcematopus unicolor opthalmicus Mathews, Nov. ZooL, Vol. XVII., p. 214, 1912. 
Distribution. North Queensland (Northern Territory, and North-west Austraha ?). 
Adult male. Differs from H. n. fuliginosus in its smaller size, shorter bill, and in having 
a large bare space round the eye ; wing 271 mm., culmen 66, tarsus 53. 
Adult female. Larger in all its measurements : wing 281 mm., culmen 80, tarsus 55. 
Immature and nestling. Undescribed. 
Nest. A depression in the sand. 
Eggs. “ Clutch, two ; ground colour pale stone-grey, spotted and blotched, more at the 
larger end, with umber, rusty brown and dull slate. Axis 59-60 mm., diameter 
40 mm.” (White.) 
The only two specimens of Sooty Oystercatcher I have seen from North 
Australia agree in having the large bare eye-space, from which Castelnau 
and Ramsay named their specimen. No specimen from southern Australia, 
H. N. OPTHALMICUS. 
though many have been examined, show this feature, so that it would seem 
to be characteristic. I give a figure of the head of this interesting form, of 
which the life-history is quite unknown. 
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