The Black Oyster-catcher 
amounts to joint occupation of territory during the breeding season; and 
there are stations, for example, King Island, in Bass Strait, off the coast of 
Australia, where both species breed in indiscriminate proximity. And, 
lastly, there is occasion to believe that some hybrids have resulted from 
the association of these long-separated stocks. 
The familiar species of the California coast is, of course, II. bach- 
mani , an all-black type. II. frazari , resident on the coasts of Lower 
California, is a black-and-white, closely related to and perhaps only a 
subspecies of the dominant II. palliatus, of eastern North America, 
Mexico (both coasts), and South America. By reason of its conspicuous 
coloration, as well as its excessive noisiness, the Frazar Oyster-catcher has 
suffered a fatal prominence. Its former appearances on the Channel 
Islands (as far north as Ventura County) were concluded by an early 
martyrdom, and the species is rare even in its primitive fortresses on Los 
Coronados Islands. 
Owing chiefly to unsettled political conditions, the ornithology of 
Baja California remains unwritten. Some few notes we have from early 
ornithological explorers. Thus, one by Walter E. Bryant written thirty 
years ago 1 : “I found this Oyster-catcher tolerably common at Mag¬ 
dalena Bay and northward, and on Santa Margarita Island they were 
mated in January. They were rather shy, running rapidly on the 
beach, and if approached, taking wing with loud, clear, whistling notes, 
and after flying some distance, alighting again at the water’s edge. 
Their food was chiefly small bivalves found on the gravelly beach.” 
No. 265 
Black Oystercatcher 
A. O. U. No. 287. Haematopus bachmani Audubon. 
Description. — Adult: Head and neck slaty black; remaining plumage sooty 
black, lightest (dark sooty brown) on back. Bill and eyelids vermilion; irides yellow; 
feet and legs pale old rose or flesh-color; nails black. Immature: Sooty black varied 
by rusty edging of feathers. Bill shorter, pointed, dusky. Downy young: Ashy gray, 
striped above with black. Length of adult about 444.5 (17.50); wing 254 (10.00); 
tail 114.3 (4.50); bill 76.2 (3.00); tarsus 57.2 (2.25). 
Recognition Marks. —Crow size; uniform black plumage; vermilion beak. 
Nesting. — Nest: A pint of rock-flakes, placed on rock or reef just above the 
tide-line. Eggs: 2 or 3; olive-buff of varying shade, spotted boldly but often sparingly 
with black and dark brown, with some imbedded markings of violet-gray. Av. of 
17 eggs in the M. C. O. coll.: 56.1 x 38.9 (2.21 x 1.53); index 69.2. Season: c. 
June 1st; one brood. 
■Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2nd series, Vol. 2, 1889, pp. 275, 276. 
