H/HMATOPUS. 
299 
Genus HiEMATOPTJ S, Linnaeus. 
HiEMATOPUS LONG IROST HIS, Vieillot. 
White-breasted Oyster-catcher. 
Gould, Uandbk. lids. Ausl., Vol. ii., sp. 498, p. 215. 
This bird is distributed all over the coast line of Australia. It 
deposits its eggs two or three in number on the small islands and 
rocky headlands, during August and the four following months. 
Specimens in the Australian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. J. 
A. Thorpe at Fraser Island, Wide Bay, Queensland, are of a pale 
stone colour, thickly spotted and blotched all over with irregular 
shaped brownish-black markings, and nearly obsolete spots and 
dashes of the same colour, appearing as if beneath the surface of 
the shell. Length (A) 2 - 25 inches x 1 *57 inch ; (B) 2’27 inches 
x l - 55 inch. 
A set in the Dobroydc Collection taken by Mr. John Ramsay 
at Capo Upstart on the 28th of August 1882, are a light stone 
colour, with blotches, smears, and angular lines of different shades 
of dark umber and black, together with subsurface markings of 
the same colour, in one specimen (A), forming an ill-defined zone 
at the larger apex. Length (A) 2-25 x P54 inches; (B) 2-27 x 
1-55 inches; (C) 2-24 x 1-55 inches. 
Specimens in my collection taken on King Island, Bass’s 
Straits, and the coast of South Australia, give the same average 
measurements. 
Like many sea-birds’ eggs they show great variation, both in 
the colour and disposition of their markings. 
ILah. Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 
Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 
Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 
Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South-west 
Australia, South Coast New Guinea. (Ramsay.) 
