34 
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 
several inches farther ; the bill is remarkably lon^, measuring 
full five inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards 
the point, and very sharp ; irides, yellow ; chin and throat, 
white, dotted with ferruginous and some blue ; the rest of the 
neck is of a light vinous purple, intermixed on the lower part 
next the breast with dark slate-coloured plumage ; the whole 
feathers of the neck are long, narrow, and pointed ; head, 
crested, consisting first of a number of long narrow purple 
feathers, and under these seven or eight pendent ones, of a 
pure white, and twice the length of the former ; upper part of 
the back and wings, light slate ; lower part of the back and 
rump, white, but concealed by a mass of long unwebbed hair- 
like plumage, that falls over the tail and tips of the wings, 
extending three inches beyond them ; these plumes are of a 
dirty purplish brown at the base, and lighten towards the ex- 
tremities to a pale cream colour ; the tail is even at the tip, 
rather longer than the wings, and of a fine slate ; the legs and 
naked thighs, greenish yellow ; middle claw pectinated ; whole 
lower parts pure white. Male and female alike in plumage, 
both being crested. 
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER H^MATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. 
Plate LXIV. Fig. 2. 
Arct. Zool. No. 406. — Cateshyy i. 85 . — Sewieky ii. 23.— —JPeale's jMuseum, No. 
4258. 
HjEMA top us PALLIATUS ?— Temminck.* 
Haematopus ostralegus, JBonap. Synop. p. 300. — Haematopus palliatus ? Jard. and 
Selby, Illust. OrnitJi. Vol. iii. Plate 125. 
This singular species, although nowhere numerous, inha- 
bits almost every sea-shore, both on the new and old continent, 
* The oyster-catchers of Europe and America are said, hy Temminck and Bo- 
naparte, to be identical. Such also was the opinion of most ornithologists, and 
my own, until a closer comparison of American specimens with British showed a 
distinction. There is another, however, with which the American bird may be 
confounded, and I cannot decidedly say that it is distinct, the H. palliatus, Temm. 
