plover and the least tern select for their breeding grounds; and at
other seasons it frequents similar resorts with all the little sand
plovers and beach birds. The small plovers are protectively colored,
but the oyster catcher is not only big, but is most conspicuously
colored. Perhaps it needs no protection against the ordinary foes of
the little fellows; and evidently its wits are sufficient protection
against larger enemies. But in spite of the fact that it is well able
to take care of itself, its range has been greatly restricted and its
numbers very much reduced during the past 50 years. It formerly bred
abundantly on Cobb Island, Virginia, but when we were there in 1907 we
saw very few and found no nests or young.
H. H. Bailey (1913) says:
This large, showy bird fell an easy mark to the spring
gunners, breeding as it did during the height of the spring
migration of “beach birds,” from May 10 to 25. Nesting
among the sand dunes or flat beaches back from the ocean,
over which the spring gunners tramped daily, these birds
were right in the line of travel, so to speak, and were
either killed or their nests broken up.
Recent records from South Carolina, where we found it common in 1915,
seem to indicate that it is becoming rarer even there. And during the
whole winter of 1924 and 1925, spent on the west coast of Florida, I
saw only one.
_Nesting._--While visiting Arthur T. Wayne on the coast of South
Carolina, we found three nests of three eggs each of the oyster catcher
on May 22 and 23, 1915. The first two nests were on the broad, sandy
beaches of Bull’s Island among numerous scattered bits of shells and
pebbles. The other was on Vessel Reef in Bull’s Bay, a low, flat,
sand reef, with small areas of marsh grass in which willets were
nesting. The oyster catchers’ nests were all on the higher parts of
the dry, flat, sand beaches, well above high-water mark; they were
mere hollows in the sand, entirely without lining, on little mounds of
sand or elevations, where the birds could have a good outlook; usually
a regular pathway of footprints in the sand led up to the nest. The
birds were never seen on or near the nests, but were flying about in
the distance making a great outcry. The nests were easily found by
following the tracks and looking for the little elevations. Several
pairs of Wilson plover were nesting near them.
W. J. Erichsen (1921) “found a single egg deposited in a depression
on top of a wall of oyster shells on Raccoon Key,” but an unusually
high tide washed the egg away. He also found a set of three eggs “in
a slight depression on top of a bank of oyster shells which had been
thrown up by the surf”; and he says that “where nesting sites of this
character can be found, this species always selects them.”
Oyster catchers’ nests are usually not near together, but M. H.
Burroughs has sent me some notes on some nests he found in Glynn
County, Ga., that are an exception to the rule. A set of four eggs, two
fresh and two partially incubated, was “on a slight mound, the nest
having a few broken bits of shells in it and nearly entirely surrounded
with a rim of broken bits of shells, evidently raked up by the birds.”
Six feet away, under a log “which had both ends resting on mounds of
sand,” was a set of two. There were two other nests, each about 150
feet away in different directions.
George B. Sennett (1879) found a nest on Padre Island, Tex., which was
quite different; he describes it as follows:
The nest was situated on dry mud a rod or so from the
water, and was simply a slight depression, of the size of
a small tea plate, lined with shells and pieces of shells;
none of them were larger than an inch in diameter, and
most much smaller. They were chiefly small oyster shells,
and were placed more on the sides than at the bottom of
the nest. No particle of grass or anything else but shells
composed the nest. What was strange to me was that on the
island where I found it not a shell or piece of one could
be seen, and these must have been brought by the bird
itself from the adjacent shell islands or oyster beds. This
was the only nest found on the island.
Walter J. Hoxie (1887) claims to have seen an oyster catcher remove the
eggs from a nest he was watching. Both birds were standing near the
nest, when “one flew off to a distance of about 100 yards.” He then
observed:
After looking carefully about for a few minutes, he gave a
call, and his mate rose from her nest and joined him. They
seemed to be making a lot of fuss out there, kicking up
the sand, squatting down, and cackling like mad. In a few
minutes, though, they seemed to get over this excitement
and one bird came flying back and settled on the eggs. Now
she began to act strangely, wiggling round and squatting
down again, and I began to think she was going to lay
another egg, when off she went and joined her mate who
welcomed her coming with the most extravagant cries and
gestures. But she sat down quite still and demure. I was
about to rise and look for my third egg when I saw her
coming back. Again she went through the same operation and
her second welcome was, if possible, more exuberant than
the first. Then all was quiet; one bird sat on the sand
and the other stood silently by her, and though I waited
some time longer they showed no sign of returning again to
their eggs, and I could only conclude that they had seen me
watching them and would not come back until I went away.
So I arose from my uncomfortable position and went to pick
up the eggs, when to my surprise the little hollow in the
sand was empty. While I was watching the curious antics of
the female she had lifted the eggs between her legs and
carried them off. So without giving time for her to repeat
the offense I hurried to her new quarters and secured them
successfully.
_Eggs._--The oyster catcher lays two or three eggs, more often the
latter I believe, and very rarely four. They are ovate to elongate
ovate in shape and have only a very slight gloss. The ground color is
usually “cartridge buff,” sometimes it is “pale olive buff” and rarely
“deep olive buff” or dull “chamois.” They are irregularly and rather
sparingly marked with spots and small blotches, occasionally a few
scrawls of black, brownish black, or very dark browns, “mummy brown”
or “bister,” and underlying spots in various shades of “Quaker drab”
or “mouse gray.” The measurements of 56 eggs average 55.7 by 38.7
millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =62= by 38.9,
57.2 by =42.2=, =51.8= by 39.9, and 52 by =33.5= millimeters.
_Young._--The period of incubation for the European species is from
21 to 24 days, and both sexes share in this duty, though it is mostly
performed by the female. We have no data on this subject for the
American species, but probably it is not much different. When the
temperature is just right the eggs may be left exposed to the sun, but
at night or when it is too hot or too cold they are covered by the
incubating bird, whose judgment is reliable in such matters.
The young are able to run soon after they are hatched, and when they
become strong on their legs they can run so fast that it is very
difficult to catch them. At a note of warning from their watchful
parents, they squat in the sand, or against some convenient object, and
remain perfectly still, their protective coloring making them almost
invisible. Both parents show their anxiety by flying around, usually at
a safe distance, and yelling their loud notes of protest. Herbert K.
Job (1905) once hunted thoroughly over a barren strip of sand, where he
knew there was a young oyster catcher, without success; he was about to
give it up and go away, when he saw a little wisp of driftweed at the
water’s edge on a strip of bare wet sand; and beside it the young bird
was lying, flat on the sand and absolutely motionless. It did not move
while he was photographing it, but as soon as it was touched off it ran
as fast as it could go.
_Plumages._--In the downy young oyster catcher the upper parts are
grizzled with pale buff and dusky; the down is dusky basally and
heavily tipped with “pinkish buff”; the crown is mostly pale buff
and the hind neck and throat are mostly dusky; the back appears more
mottled and has two quite distinct, broad stripes of brownish black;
there is sometimes a similar broad stripe on the nape; a narrow black
line runs from the bill, through the eye and to the nape; a broad
black band extends from behind the wing to the tail; below this and
the dusky throat the under parts are white. When very young, the bill
is decidedly hooked at the extreme tips of both mandibles. In a young
bird, about one-quarter grown, the primaries are bursting their sheaths
and the white greater coverts are growing; the juvenal plumage is
appearing on the back, scapulars and lesser wing coverts; these new
feathers are “sepia,” broadly tipped with “cinnamon”; the crown is
“bister,” faintly tipped with “cinnamon”; the white plumage is coming
in on the breast.
In full juvenal plumage, when the young bird is nearly fully grown,
these colors are somewhat paler; the feathers of the back, scapulars
and wing coverts are “Saccardo’s umber,” tipped with “clay color” or
“cinnamon-buff”; the crown, sides of the head, and upper chest are dark
“bister,” tipped with “cinnamon-buff”; the chin and throat are mottled
with sepia and buffy; the upper tail coverts are white, tipped with
buffy; the tail is dark “bister,” tipped with “cinnamon-buff”; and the
under parts are white. By the end of July the buffy tips on the mantle
have nearly disappeared by wear. Early in September the post-juvenal
molt begins; this involves the body plumage, but not all the scapulars
and wing coverts and not the tail.
The first winter plumage is like the adult, the head and neck being
“fuscous” or “Chaetura black” and the mantle “deep mouse gray.” Young
birds can be distinguished by a somewhat slenderer bill and by the
retained and worn juvenal wing coverts, scapulars, and tail feathers.
At the first prenuptial molt they become fully adult.
Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in late winter and early spring,
involving the body plumage and most of the scapulars and wing coverts,
and a complete postnuptial molt in late summer and fall.
_Food._--Audubon (1840) says of the feeding habits of the oyster
catcher:
I have seen it probe the sand, to the full length of its
bill, knock off limpets from the rocks on the coast of
Labrador, using its weapon sideways and insinuating it
between the rock and the shell like a chisel, seize the
bodies of gaping oysters on what are called in the Southern
States and the Floridas “raccoon oyster beds,” and at
other times take up a “razor handle” or solen, and lash
it against the sands until the shell was broken and the
contents swallowed. Now and then they seem to suck the sea
urchins, driving in the mouth, and introducing their bill
by the aperture, without breaking the shell; again they are
seen wading up to their bodies from one place to another,
seizing on shrimps and other crustacea, and even swimming
for a few yards, should this be necessary to enable them
to remove from one bank to another without flying. Small
crabs, fiddlers, and sea worms are also caught by it, the
shells of which, in a broken state, I have found in its
gizzard in greater or less quantity. Frequently, while on
wet sea beaches, it pats the sand to force out the insects;
and in one instance I saw an individual run from the water
to the dry sand with a small flounder in its bill, which it
afterwards devoured.
Wilson (1832) says that they probe in the sand “with their long,
wedgelike bills in search of small shellfish. This appears evident on
examining the hard sands where they usually resort, which are found
thickly perforated with oblong holes, 2 to 3 inches in depth.” He
seemed to doubt the reports of their eating oysters, but C. J. Maynard
(1896) writes:
When the outgoing tide left the tops of the oyster bars
exposed, they would come flying silently in, at first
singly, then in pairs, while groups of a few would follow,
until, at last, they would come in flocks of a dozen or
more. They would alight among the oysters and when the
bivalves gaped open, as is their habit when the water first
leaves them, the birds would thrust in the point of their
hard, flat bills, divide the ligament with which the shells
are fastened together, then, having the helpless inhabitant
at their mercy, would at once devour it. They were not
long in making a meal, for specimens which I shot after
they had been feeding a short time were so crammed that by
simply holding a bird by the legs and shaking it gently the
oysters would fall from its mouth.
_Behavior._--Oyster catchers are strong, swift fliers and at times
are graceful and elegant in their movements. They are striking birds
in flight, displaying to good advantage their conspicuous patterns of
black and white and their bright red bills. Their movements on the
ground are equally graceful as they walk sedately along the beach or
wade out into the water until the waves lap their breasts. They can
swim perfectly well and can even dive readily if necessary. Audubon
(1840) describes their flight evolutions as follows:
Now wheeling with wonderful impetuosity they pass within a
hundred yards of you, and suddenly checking their flight
return, not low over the water as before, but high in the
air. Again, they form their ranks in a broad front, and,
again, as if suddenly alarmed by the report of a distant
gun, they close pell-mell, and dip towards the sands or the
waters. Shoot one at such a moment and you may expect to
kill another; but as this is done, the wary birds, as if
suddenly become aware of your intentions, form themselves
into a straggling line, and before a minute has elapsed,
far beyond reach, and fading on the view, are the remaining
oyster catchers.
_Voice._--The loud, striking notes of protest, heard as the oyster
catcher flies around the intruder on its breeding grounds, are quite
unlike any other bird notes; they sound like _wheep, wheep, wheeop_,
and are both vehement and penetrating. John T. Nichols says in his
notes: “The oyster catcher has a creeking note, _crik, crik, crik_,
etc., used when the bird takes wing. A more striking cry, _cle-ar_,
suggests the flight calls of the willet and the black-bellied plover.”
_Field marks._--A large wader, with black head and dark upper parts,
with a big white patch in its long, pointed, black wings and with white
under parts, can be nothing but an oyster catcher. No other bird of
strong, steady flight can be mistaken for it. One is seldom near enough
to recognize its long, red bill.
_Winter._--The oyster catcher is resident throughout most of its range,
but it retires in winter from the northern portion of its breeding
range. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:
In the winter the oyster catcher is very gregarious and
it is not unusual to see flocks containing from 20 to 75
individuals. The majority of these birds are undoubtedly
migrants from points to the northward of South Carolina
and not the resident breeding birds, which apparently
go together in pairs or small flocks of from 4 to 6
individuals.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, Central
and South America. The American oyster catcher has been subdivided
into several races the exact range of which it is not now possible
to define. This should be borne in mind in considering the following
outline, which undoubtedly includes the ranges of _H. p. durnfordi_,
_H. p. prattii_, and _H. p. pitanay_ (Murphy). Generally speaking,
_prattii_ is assumed to be confined to the Bahama Islands, _durnfordi_
the South Atlantic coast of South America, and _pitanay_ the Pacific
coast of South America.
The species is not migratory in a strict sense, although the examples
breeding at the north and south extremes of the range probably retire
short distances toward the Equator when forced to do so by climatic
conditions.
The range may be outlined as follows: North to Texas (Brownsville,
Padre Island, Corpus Christi, and Galveston); Louisiana (Isla a Pitre);
probably rarely Alabama (Petit Bois Island); and formerly southern New
Jersey (Great Egg Harbor). East to formerly southern New Jersey (Great
Egg Harbor, and probably Seven-mile Beach); probably rarely Maryland
(Ocean City); Virginia (Hog Island, Cobb Island, and Smiths Island);
North Carolina (Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke Inlet, and mouth of Cape Fear
River); South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Raccoon Key, Bulls Bay, Sullivan
Island, and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, St. Simon Island, and
Cumberland); Florida (St. Johns River, Charlotte Harbor, and probably
Cape Sable); the Bahama Islands (Abaco, Andros, Long, Mariguana, and
Inagua Islands); probably Porto Rico (Desecheo Island); Venezuela
(Aruba, Curaçao, and Cumana); Brazil (Santa Catherina, Cajetuba,
Rio de Janeiro, Sapetiba Bay, and Iguape); Uruguay (La Paloma and
Montevideo); and Argentina (Lavalle, Cape San Antonio, Mar Chiquita,
and mouth of Chubut River). South to Argentina (mouth of Chubut River)
and Chile (Ancud). West to Chile (Ancud, Algarrobo, Santiago, Chanaral,
and Atacama); Peru (San Nicolas Bay, Independencia Bay, Pisco Bay,
Chilca, and San Lorenzo); Ecuador (Gulf of Guayaquil and Santa Elena);
Panama (Pearl Island); Yucatan (Cozumel Island and Merida); and Texas
(Brownsville).
_Casual records._--The American oyster-catcher has on a few occasions
been directed north of its normal range. Among these occurrences are:
New York, a specimen in New York Harbor, May 28, 1877, one about
March 9, 1880, at Ponquogue, and one at Greenport, June 2, 1882;
Massachusetts, two in August, 1899, at Chatham, one in April, 1885, at
Monomoy Island, two seen September 10, 1924, at Eastham, a pair taken
in 1837, at Marshfield, and one in Boston harbor, killed prior to 1814;
Maine, reported by Audubon as occurring at Portland but this record
is considered doubtful; New Brunswick, a specimen has been reported
upon the authority of Boardman (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 1884) as
taken at Grand Manan. This last is considered unsatisfactory as being
indefinite, while Audubon’s statement that it bred in Labrador is
probably an error.
_Egg dates._--Virginia: 37 records, April 26 to July 9; 19 records, May
21 to June 19. South Carolina and Georgia: 25 records, March 27 to June
25; 13 records, May 5 to 23. Texas: 8 records, March 29 to May 5.
HAEMATOPUS PALLIATUS FRAZARI Brewster
FRAZAR OYSTER CATCHER
HABITS
It now seems to be generally recognized that this Lower California
oyster catcher is a subspecies of _palliatus_, although William
Brewster (1902) originally described it as a full species and named
it in honor of the veteran collector, M. Abbott Frazar. Dr. Robert
Cushman Murphy (1925) has recently reviewed this group, in which he has
designated six subspecies of _palliatus_, inhabiting various parts of
North and South America. To _frazari_ he assigns the following limited
range:
Pacific and Gulf coasts of Lower California and adjacent
parts of Mexico, including the islands; formerly northward
in Ventura County, Calif.; southward along the west coast
of Mexico to Tepic and Jalisco, and at least occasionally
to Guerrero.
Ridgway lists specimens from Sihutanejo and Acapulco,
Guerrero. Contrary to former opinion, however, this race is
principally confined to the zone of generally arid shores
centering about the peninsula and gulf of Lower California.
Its range approaches or meets that of _H. p. palliatus_ on
the more tropical coast farther south, probably at a point
not far from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
He says of the characters of this race:
The subspecific characters of _frazari_, which include
darker coloration of the brown upper parts than in
_palliatus_, heavy mottling on the breast along the
junction of white and black plumage, longer wing and tail
(?), and smaller bill and feet, are given fully by Ridgway.
The latter makes no mention, however, of the practical
elimination of the white blotching of the primaries, a
character which this oyster catcher shares with other
western races. In most specimens the white spots are wholly
lacking, but a few show obsolescent white or mottled
markings of the conventional pattern on the eighth or ninth
from the outermost quill. It is interesting to note that
the mottling of the breast, which is so strongly typical of
this race, appears to be carried by a genetic factor deeply
rooted in the species as a whole. Scarcely any large series
of _H. p. palliatus_, indeed, lacks one or more birds of
this type. In its maximum expression, however, when the
whole breast, sides, flanks, and under tail coverts are
heavily blotched, the character is peculiar to _frazari_.
_W._ Leon Dawson (1923) says, in explanation of its disappearance from
California:
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.
_Nesting._--Being more permanently resident than even its eastern
relative, the Frazar oyster catcher has no migrations, except its late
summer wanderings, and remains on its breeding range throughout the
year. As to the nesting habits of this bird at Scammons Lagoon, Lower
California, Griffing Bancroft (1927) writes:
They climb up on the shell banks which are the back stops
of the beaches and there build their nests. The shell
banks are usually a yard or two above high-water mark;
they are flat and quite narrow and often have fingerlike
projections of 50 yards or so on the same level, running
toward the east. Typically, all these higher flats are
composed of nothing but shell, largely unbroken and of a
size which may be judged in the accompanying illustration.
Sand and small impurities have been garnered by the wind.
The oyster catcher likes to build her nest where she
has an unobstructed view in all directions, securing to
herself the opportunity of slipping off unobtrusively at
the approach of an enemy. But she is a stupid bird and is
easily satisfied with a makeshift which seems to her to
accomplish her purpose but in reality does not do so at
all. So on some of the earthen islands we find her nesting
on little mounds, from which, it is true, she can see, but
to only a matter of a few feet.
In the Gulf of California the favorite site for an
oyster catcher is the end of the rather long spits of
cobblestones. These are so nearly level that a sitting bird
has an unobstructed view for a hundred yards. There she
builds a nest of fine hard material--small pebbles and bits
of shell. And as she can not have broken the larger stones
that were originally on the site she must have removed
them. I use the analogy for Scammons. Instead of breaking
the shells with her powerful bill she probably pulls them
out of the way until she has a flat circle about 10 inches
across. This clearing she lines as neatly as tile work, and
on them deposits her eggs, one, two, or three. The breeding
season seems quite long, as we found both well-developed
young and fresh eggs. I have observed parents with their
young long after the latter had taken wing, and so feel
sure that the oyster catchers raise but one brood a year.
I have a set of two eggs in my collection, taken by W. W. Brown, jr.,
May 2, 1912, on San Jose Island; the nest is described as a depression,
lined with pebbles, in a crevice on top of a jagged, weatherworn ledge,
40 feet above the surf. There are two sets in the Thayer collection,
taken by Mr. Brown near La Paz on March 24 and 26, 1909; one nest was
similarly located to mine; “it was out of reach of the surf, but the
spray, no doubt, dampened it in rough weather”; the nest from which the
other set was taken is described as “a depression in the sand.” The
eggs were laid on the bare ground, there being no lining to the nest
whatever. It was 80 feet from the surf.
_Eggs._--The Frazar oyster catcher lays two or three eggs, sometimes
only one. These are practically indistinguishable from those of the
American oyster catcher. The measurements of 27 eggs average 57.1 by
38.8 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =60.9= by
37.8, 59.8 by =41.5=, =50.7= by 40.8, and 60.7 by =36= millimeters.
_Plumages._--The plumages and molts from the downy stage to maturity
are apparently the same as in the American oyster catcher. Mr. Bancroft
(1927) has published some interesting notes on his observations, which
suggest that either there are two color phases in these birds or that
they interbreed with black oyster catchers (_bachmani_) and produce
hybrids; I am inclined to accept the latter theory, but quote from Mr.
Bancroft’s (1927) paper, as follows: