4 88 
PLOVER GROUP. 
lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts being white, and by the white 
pattern on the primaries being well marked on the outer webs of the fourth and 
fifth quills of that series. In this species the beak and region round the eye are 
orange; all the upper-parts are black, with the exception of the lower-back, rump, 
and upper tail-coverts, the basal portion of the tail-feathers, and a band across the 
wing comprising the greater wing-coverts and some of the secondaries, which are 
white; the primaries being also more or less marked with the latter colour. With 
the exception of the chin, throat, breast, and a few of the wing-coverts, all the 
under-parts are white. In length, this bird varies from 16 to 17 inches. Migratory 
in many districts, this species inhabits the whole of Europe, and a considerable 
COMMON OYSTER-CATCHER (J Hat. size), 
portion of the eastern half of Asia, as well as North Africa; ranging; to the Arctic 
' o o 
Circle, and visiting Western India in winter. In Japan, Northern China, Amur- 
land, etc., it is replaced by the Japanese oyster-catcher (H. osculans), distinguished 
by its long beak, and the white on the primaries not appearing till the sixth quill; 
while in the New World its place is taken by the American oyster-catcher ( H. 
palleatus), in which (as in all the New World species) the legs are pale flesh- 
coloured, while the upper-parts below the black neck are, with the exception of the 
greater wing-coverts and tail-coverts, brown instead of black. The black species 
are the Australian black oyster-catcher (H unicolor), represented by a variety in 
Africa; and the American black oyster-catcher (H. niger), characterised by the 
