PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 
35 
but is never found inland. It is the only one of its genus hi- 
therto discovered, and, from the conformation of some of its 
I have not seen that species ; hut from the description of the upper parts being 
greyish brown, it must either be distinct, or the young state of the North Ame- 
rican bird. My specimens of the latter are of the purest black and white. 
Bonaparte, in his Nomenclature, says, the species is common to both conti- 
nents ; and mentions that he has specimens before him, from each country, 
decidedly alike. From this circumstance, I should be inclined to give two spe- 
cies to North America, as the distinctions between them are so great as it would 
be impossible to overlook, on an examination such as he was likely to give. 
The following are the distinctive marks of the species in my possession ; — The 
bill appears generally to be more slender ; the quills want the white band run- 
ning in a slanting direction across, being in the American specimen entirely 
black ; the secondaries in the American, except the first, ai’e pure white ; in the 
British specimen, each, except the three or four last, have a black mark near the 
tips, which decrease in size as they proceed. The whole interior surface of the 
wing is pure white ; in the other it is black, except where the white seconda- 
ries appear. In the British bird, the tail-coverts and rump are pui’e white, the 
latter running upon the back, until it is hid by the scapulary and back feathers. 
In the American, the tail-coverts only are white, forming, as it were, a band 
of that colour, interrupted by the black tip of the tail ; the whole rump and 
lower part of the back, black. 
If that before us prove distinct, this genus will contain five species, distributed 
over the whole world, and allied so closely, that every member is alike, with a 
different distribution only of black and white to distinguish them. They are, 
the common European bird, perhaps also American, H. ostralegus; the black 
oyster-catcher, H. niger, found in Australia and Africa ; H. palliatus, Temm., 
South American, and which may turn out to be the immature state of the spe- 
cies we have mentioned ; and the Ostralega leucopus of Lesson, found on the 
Malowine Isles, and remarkable in having white legs and feet. The species in 
my possession may stand as the fifth, under the name of H. ariicus.* 
As they are allied in form, so they are in habit. They frequent low sandy 
beaches, feeding on the shell-fish during the recess of the tide, and resting while 
it flows. The oyster-catcher of Europe is to be found on all the sandy British 
coasts in immense abundance. All those which I have observed breeding, have 
chosen low rocky coasts, and deposit their eggs on some shelve, or ledge, merely 
baring the surface from any moss or other substance covering the rock. When 
approached, the parents fly round, uttering with great vehemence their clamo- 
* When this note was written, I had not seen the elaborate review of Cuvier’s Regne 
Animale by the Prince' of Musignano. He is aware that the North American and European 
species are distinct, and mentions that the more northern regions produce an additional one ; 
I believe the bird figured by Wilson, and the skins in my possession, will prove to be this, 
and may stand as I have named it above. That ornithologist also gives as a principal cha- 
racter to H. 'palliatus, that the upper parts are “ di un color fosco invece di 'nero,^' at variance 
with the pure black and white of our specimens. — E d. 
