The Frazar Oyster-catcher 
No. 264 
Frazar’s Oyster-catcher 
A. O. U. No. 286.1. Haematopus palliatus frazari Brewster. 
Description. — Adult: Head and neck all around slaty black; chest black, 
spotted and tipped with white; sides of breast sooty black; lining of wings white, 
varied by dusky; remaining underparts pure white, or with some dusky spotting on 
lower tail-coverts; back and wings dark brown; the greater wing-coverts broadly 
tipped with white, and forming with some of the inner secondaries a heavy transverse 
bar; exposed primaries and tip of tail blackish; the upper tail-coverts laterally, and on 
their distal portions centrally, white. Bill vermilion; a red ring around eye; iris orange- 
yellow; feet and legs pale purplish flesh-color. Immature: Much like adult, but head 
brownish black, and brown of upperparts varied by buffy edgings. Measurements 
(of the two extant California specimens); length 450 (17.72); wing 270 (10.63); tail 
102 (4.02); bill 77.5 (3.05); tarsus 57 (2.24). 
Recognition Marks. —Crow size; black and white plumage with long red beak 
and island haunts distinctive. 
Nesting. —Does not breed in California. Nest: A mere depression in shingle 
or gravel of upper beach, lined or not with bits of shell. Eggs: 2 or 3; ovate, pale 
olive-buff or rarely olive-buff, spotted or marked boldly and rather sparingly with 
brownish black and subdued under-shell markings of violet-gray. Av. size 52.3 x 37.6 
(2.06 x 1.48); index 71. Season: May; one brood. 
Range of Ilcematopus palliatus. —Coasts and adjacent islands of the Americas. 
Upon the east coasts from Virginia to Argentina and in the West Indies; on the west 
coasts from the northern borders of Mexico south to Chile. 
Range of H. p. frazari. —Resident upon both coasts of Lower California and on 
the western coast of Mexico, with their adjacent islands. 
Occurrence in California.- —Formerly of regular occurrence, and breeding at 
least as far north as Santa Barbara Islands; now a “rare straggler from farther south 
during late summer” (Howell). 
Authorities.—Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer., vol. i., 
1884, p. 112 (San Diego and Santa Barbara Ids.); Evermann, Auk, vol. iii., 1886, p. 92 
(Ventura Co.); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, p. 99 (distr.). 
TO A STUDENT of world ornithology the phylogeny of the Oyster- 
catchers makes instant appeal, by reason ol its simplicity and its clear-cut 
distinctions. There are two types of Oyster-catchers, the all-black and 
the black-and-white. That the distinction is as ancient as it is clear-cut 
goes without saying, for the black-and-white type has split up into nine 
different species, or races; while the all-blacks boast at least four forms 
entitled to specific rank. Together these 13 species occupy the major 
coasts of the world. But the significant thing is that the two types, 
necessarily evolved in widely sundered regions, now overlap each other 
through immense stretches of coast-line, notably in Australia, South 
America, and Africa. In three instances, at least, this overlapping 
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