jgo allen’s naturalist’s library. 
hater and not unfrequently the single note is added, making 
a treble note, kUter keet. In spring, during the breeding 
season, it is said that these notes are often so rapidly uttered 
that they form a trill. 
Nest— A little hollow, lined with a few dead leaves, and 
generally concealed behind a bush or under some broad leaf, 
or a tuft of herbage. 
Eggs.— Four in number ; ground-colour of a pale greenish- 
grey to light clay-colour and olive-brown, the overlying spots 
being of a chocolate-brown, in some cases generally distribmed 
over the egg, but in some clustered round the larger end. The 
underlying spots are distinct, and of a purplish-grey. Axis, 
i'5-i7 inch; diam., I'os-i-a. 
THE OYSTER-CATCHERS. SUB-FAMILY 
H^MATOPODIN^. 
Like the Turn-stones, the Oyster-catchers have no swelling 
near the tips of the mandibles, in this respect differing from the 
True Plovers. The bill is very much compressed and narrow, 
the angle of the lower mandible being very strongly marked 
and situated not far from the base of the bill, its distance from 
the tip being double that from the base of the mandible. The 
tarsus is reticulated both in front and behind. 
THE OYSTER-CATCHERS. GENUS HAiMATOPUS. 
UcBmatopus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 257 (1766). 
Type, H. ostralegus (Linn.). 
There is but one genus of these curious birds, with twelve 
species. They are found nearly all over the world, and are 
divided into two groups, the Pied Oyster-catchers and the 
Black Oyster-catchers, the former being mostly northern while 
the latter are southern birds, though H. niger reaches to North- 
west America, and H. moqnini to the Canaries and Madeira. 
