the rest had all their underparts black, with the exception
of one, whose belly was streaked black and white. Mr.
Chester Lamb wrote me that on Natividad Island there was
a much larger percentage of mixed underparts than we
found. That there were two phases of one bird instead of
two distinct species in the lagoon was apparent to anyone
watching them. There was only one case I observed of a
black bird paired with another black; all the other blacks
had white-bellied mates. The difference between the birds
was limited to the abdomens; place a mixed series in a
row with the backs up and one could not tell one bird
from another. In their conduct, especially when their
nests were threatened, there were no differences at all. I
feel perfectly safe in saying there were no black oyster
catchers (_Haematopus bachmani_) present. I have seen too
many of them, from Monterey to Sitka, not to know by heart
every movement they will make and every note they will
utter when one trespasses on their home sites. The actions
and the cries, and especially the noise, are more unusual
and more uniform than those of any bird with which I am
acquainted. They fly customarily in a complete half circle
from the rocks on one side to those on the other, the
birds keeping near each other and almost always close to
the water. The noise is incessant, shrill, continuous, and
loud beyond belief. The contrast with the birds in Scammons
is striking. There, both the white and the black bellied
are almost as silent as plover and try to win safety by
a prodigious show of indifference. There is little or no
excitement while we tramp around the nesting sites. When
the parents find we can not be persuaded to follow them
away they take up positions 50 to 100 feet from us and
there remain motionless, usually as long as we are in the
neighborhood. There is another great difference between
_H. bachmani_ and the black phase in the south. The former
is decidedly darker than the latter, especially on the
back, whereas true _Haematopus frazari_ from both ends of
the Gulf appear to be the same as those in Scammons.
We found and photographed a pair of downy young not over a
few days old. These youngsters are obviously of the white
and black types, respectively; we have the skins to show
that there is no photographic illusion here. So we have
very strong evidence that the black and the white phases do
mate and do produce fertile offspring and that the young
have partaken of the coloring, one of one parent and one of
the other. These little birds are not mongrels, though we
know from some adults that occasionally there are chicks
which do inherit from both parents. Comparison shows that
the white-breasted downy does not differ at all, at a
cursory glance, from a baby taken on Coronado Island in the
Gulf.
_Behavior._--The same observer writes:
Scammons Lagoon is a haven for oyster catchers, or appears
so to such of us as are accustomed to but an occasional
pair scattered along the various islands and rocky
projections in the more northerly Pacific Ocean. There are
at least two or three hundred oyster catchers fairly evenly
distributed over the islands we visited, with an occasional
pair or so on favorable mainland strands. When the tides
are going down vast stretches of hard flats are exposed
and become feeding grounds. The birds pursue the receding
water even to the point of wading, and there they hunt the
small marine life on which they live. When the tide turns
they use the black levels as a lounging place until driven
ashore by the sea. They are markedly indolent and slow in
movement and, when undisturbed, never appear the least bit
busy.
Walter E. Bryant (1890) says:
I found this oyster catcher tolerably common at Magdalena
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 in the gravelly beach.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Pacific coast of Mexico and southern California. The Frazar
oyster catcher is confined chiefly to Lower California (San Quintin
Bay, Cedros Island, Natividad Island, San Roque, Ascuncion Island, Los
Coronados Islands, Carmen Island, San Jose Island, La Paz, and Todos
Santos); and the mainland coast of Mexico; Sonora (Quotla); Sinaloa
(Altata); Nayarit (Maria Madre Island, Maria Cleofas Island, Tres
Marias, Isabela Island, and San Blas); and Guerrero (Sihutanejo, and
Acapulco). The species is of casual occurrence (formerly more common)
on the coast and islands of southern California (San Diego, Santa
Barbara Island, San Clemente Island, and Ventura County). Breeding
records for California are not satisfactory.
_Egg dates._--Lower California: 39 records, March 24 to June 24; 20
records, April 22 to May 13.
HAEMATOPUS BACHMANI Audubon
BLACK OYSTER CATCHER
HABITS
At the northern end of their range, in the Aleutian Islands, I first
became acquainted with these big black waders. Here we frequently saw
them at various points, as we entered or left the rock-bound harbors,
sitting in little groups or in pairs on the rocks or outlying ledges.
They were surprisingly inconspicuous on the wet and dark colored rocks,
which were often half hidden in the prevailing fogs. They seemed to
fit very well into their dark and gloomy surroundings. They were not
particularly shy, as they stood on the slippery rocks and nodded to us
with grotesque dignity, or as they flew out around us uttering their
loud and penetrating cries.
_Courtship._--W. Leon Dawson (1909) writes:
Left to themselves, the birds are no Quakers, and the
antics of courtship are both noisy and amusing. A certain
duet, especially, consists of a series of awkward bowings
and bendings in which the neck is stretched to the utmost
and arched over stiffly into a pose as grotesque as one of
Cruikshank’s drawings, the whole to an accompaniment of
amorous clucks and wails.
_Nesting._--We did not succeed in finding any nests of the black oyster
catcher in the Aleutian Islands, though they undoubtedly breed there.
Dr. W. H. Dall (1873) found two nests in the Shumagins on June 23,
1872; there were two eggs “in one nest and one in another, if nest it
could be called, being simply a depression in the gravel of the beach
without even a straw to soften its asperities.” Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood
(1901) found a nest in the Queen Charlotte Islands, which “was merely a
hollow about 2 inches deep and almost perfectly round, scooped out of
a weedy turf a few feet above highwater mark. The bottom of the hollow
was covered with bits of broken stone, evidently placed there by the
old bird.”
Referring to the rocky islands off the coast of Washington, Mr. Dawson
(1909) says:
The eggs of the black oyster catcher, normally three
in number, are oftenest placed in the hollow of a bare
rock, lined with a pint or so of rock flakes, laboriously
gathered. Occasionally bits of shell, especially the
calcareous plates of the goose barnacle, are added by way
of adornment. Now and then the wader emulates the gull
and prepares a careful lining of grasses. One such nest
with three eggs I passed repeatedly, on Carroll, languidly
supposing it to be a gull’s until Professor Jones exclaimed
over it.
For a nesting site the upper reaches of barren reefs or
shoulders are chosen, but on the smaller rocks, where
the waders have exclusive rights, the eggs may be lodged
on the very crest of the islet. Again, upon Destruction
Island, we found eggs on a coarse beach gravel, where to
the protection of color, stone-gray with black spots and
blotches, was added the almost perfect assimilation of form
to that of the rounded pebbles.
_Eggs._--The black oyster catcher lays two or three eggs, occasionally
only one and more rarely four. They are very much like the eggs of
the American oyster catcher, but perhaps they will average a little
more buffy. They are ovate in shape and have a very slight gloss. The
ground colors vary from “cream buff” to “olive buff.” They are usually
quite evenly covered with small spots and scrawls of black or very dark
browns, “bister” or “Dresden brown,” and various shades of “Quaker
drab.” The measurements of 44 eggs average 56.2 by 39.5 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure =62= by 39.5, 58.1 by =42=,
=51= by 39.5 and 54.2 by =37.5= millimeters.
_Young._--Nothing seems to be known about the period of incubation or
whether both sexes share in it; both parents are interested in the care
of the young and are very solicitous for their welfare. Dr. Joseph
Grinnell (1910) writes:
Dixon observed two half-grown young running about on the
beach; but as soon as the old birds, which were always
watching, saw anyone approaching a warning note was
uttered, at which the young ones promptly squatted among
the rocks wherever they happened to be, even if in the edge
of the water. They remained perfectly quiet and blended so
nicely with their surroundings that it was difficult to
locate them even when they had been previously seen from a
distance. The old birds attacked and put to rout any gulls
or ravens that approached the vicinity.
Prof. Harold Heath (1915) says:
The precocial fledglings very early accompanied their
parents on short journeys about the cliffs, and within
a week after hatching were observed pecking at limpets,
although it is highly probable that for several days
thereafter they depended on the old birds for the greater
part of their food supply. During this time the young
resemble diminutive ostriches, with thick-set legs,
big feet, and fluffy plumage, which, it may be added,
harmonizes to a high degree with the surroundings.
Furthermore, they have the same habit of hiding the head
when it is not possible to conceal the entire body beneath
a stone.
_Plumages._--The downy young black oyster catcher is a swarthy little
fellow, clothed in short, thick, dark, grizzly down, a color pattern
well suited for concealment among the dark rocks where it lives. The
down of the upper parts is basally sooty black and very dark gray, but
the pale buffy tips give the bird its grizzly appearance. There is an
indistinct loral and postocular stripe and two broad, more distinct,
parallel stripes down the back of brownish black and two blackish areas
on the thighs; between the back stripes and on the rump the buff tips
produce a transverse barred effect. The underparts are dull grays,
darkest on the throat and breast and lightest on the belly; the sides
are faintly mottled or barred.
In juvenal plumage the young bird is much like the adult, but the
feathers of the wing coverts, scapulars, tertials, and back are tipped
with narrow terminal bars of “cinnamon buff” and subterminal blackish
bars; those of the flanks, thighs, and under tail coverts are tipped
with the same color; most of these buffy tips soon wear away, and
before the postjuvenal molt there are only a few spots left on the wing
coverts, scapulars, and tertials, some of which are carried through
the winter as evidences of immaturity. I have not seen enough material
collected at the proper seasons to trace the molts of adults.
_Food._--Mr. Dawson (1909) writes:
Even when visiting the mainland shore, which is not often,
the bird confines its attention to the barnacle-covered
rocks and high-lying mussel beds. Its food consists of
marine worms and crustaceans of various sorts, barnacles,
limpets, and especially mussels. Its stout, chisel-shaped
beak enables it to force an entrance into the most
refractory mussel shell and to sever as by a knife the
strong adductor muscles, which hold the valves together.
Its feet also are large and strong, and the toes are
provided with an elaborate set of pectinations which enable
the bird to maintain a footing upon the most slippery
rocks. If the foothold on a sloping rock is anywise
precarious, the bird retreats backward and uphill by means
of these convenient calks.
A. B. Howell (1917) says:
Certain rocky points are selected by the birds, and to
these are often brought the barnacles which they pry off
the rocks. These are worked over at leisure, and at one
such depot on the Coronados, which I examined there was
fully a bushel of shells.
_Behavior._--The flight of the black oyster catcher is strong and
direct, but it seemed to me to be rather slow and heavy. Lucien M.
Turner (1886) says:
The flight consists of a few rapid strokes of the wing,
followed by a sail for a few yards. It is sluggish when
on the wing, and flies with difficulty, and rarely long
continued. When alarmed it flies over the water within a
few yards of the shore, and in going from one point of
rocks to another it either makes the trip in easy stages
from one large rock to another, or else follows the
indentations of the shore line. The bird is always on the
alert, and not at all shy. It generally sees the hunter
long before he suspects the presence of the bird. The bird
either squats in a depression of the rocks, or stealthily
creeps to the top of some huge bowlder, where it utters
a piercing, whistling chatter like that of a policeman’s
rattle. It causes the intruder long search to discover the
presence of the bird, for its color is so near that of the
rocks it frequents that it is not easily detected. The
note is then answered by another bird, so that in a few
minutes a dozen may be chattering hideously, making the
hunter wonder where all the birds came from so suddenly, as
all the birds within hearing assemble on the first note of
alarm.
Carl Lien says in his notes:
If occasion requires these birds are good swimmers and,
if pursued when crippled, will dive deep and long. A very
alert bird and always first to give alarm.
_Voice._--My notes refer to the cries of this bird as loud, penetrating
screams, sounding like _whee-up_, or _whee-ep_.
Doctor Dall (1873) says:
They utter, when disturbed, a peculiar, low whistle; which
once heard, is likely to be remembered; and they have a
habit of standing on the beach or rocks a little way apart,
and whistling to one another; one calling and the other
answering; and keeping it up for half an hour at a time.
It is one of the most peculiar birds of the region, in
its motions, having a grave, solemn and stilted gait, and
bobbing its head up and down with every step.
_Winter._--As the black oyster catcher is practically resident all the
year round throughout most, if not all, of its range, there is not much
to be said about its migrations, though there is probably some shifting
of individuals. Doctor Dall (1873) refers to it as a summer visitor in
the Aleutian Islands, but Mr. Turner (1886) records it as a permanent
resident there.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Pacific coast of North America and Lower California.
_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the black oyster catcher
extends north to Alaska (Atka Island, Range Island, St. Paul Harbor,
Montague Island, Hinchinbrook Island, Sitka, St. Lazaria Island,
probably Kuiu Island, Coronation Island, Prince of Wales Island,
Forrester Island, and Duke Island); south along the coast of British
Columbia (Porcher Island, Skidegate, Vancouver Island, and New
Westminster); Washington (Bellingham Bay, Waldron Island, Flattery
Rocks, Quillayute Needles, Destruction Island, and Copalis Rock);
Oregon (Three Arch Rock, Newport, and Bandon); California (probably
Prince Island, Eureka, probably the Farallon Islands, Point Pinos, San
Miguel Island, Santa Cruz Island, Anacapa Island, San Clemente Island,
and San Diego); and Lower California (Todos Santos, San Benito Island,
Cedros Island, Natividad Island, Abreojos Point, and Los Coronados
Islands).
_Winter range._--In winter, the black oyster catcher is found
throughout its breeding range except (normally) in Alaska and
(probably) northern British Columbia. It has, however, been recorded on
one occasion at this season, in Alaska, St. George Island, January 12,
1917 (Hanna).
_Migration._--An early date of arrival in Alaska is Unalaska Island,
April 29, while a late date of departure is St. Lazaria Island,
September 30.
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 14 records, June 5 to 26; 7 records, June 13 to
23. British Columbia: 13 records, May 27 to June 20; 7 records, June 6
to 12. California: 7 records, May 25 to June 10.
Family JACANIDAE Jacanas
JACANA SPINOSA GYMNOSTOMA (Wagler)
MEXICAN JACANA
HABITS
The American jacanas are now split into three species and three
additional subspecies, six forms in all. They are widely distributed
throughout the American Tropics. All are closely related and all are
much alike in habits. The above form barely comes within the range of
our check list, as a rare straggler from Mexico into the valley of the
lower Rio Grande near Brownsville, Tex.
I have never seen this curious bird in life, but can imagine that it
must be a beautiful sight to see it tripping lightly over the floating
lily pads, supported on its long toes, where it seems to be actually
walking on the water; and it must produce quite a surprising thrill as
it spreads its wings to fly, displaying the conspicuous yellow-green
patches in its wings, which flash in the sunlight like banners of
golden yellow. It seems like a strange connecting link between the
spur-winged plovers and the rails or gallinules.
It is a sedentary species of decidedly local distribution and seldom
strays far from its favorite breeding haunts. Thomas S. Gillin, who has
sent me some very good notes on this bird, describes its habitat as
follows:
I learned of a lake a few miles from Tampico and on my
first visit to this lake on April 3, 1923, I found over
a dozen birds feeding and chasing one another over the
floating vegetation. As the first sets of eggs were found
on April 25 I apparently found them right in the midst of
the mating season. The lake where I found them was about a
half mile long and from 100 to 250 yards wide, curved and
irregular in outline. Nowhere in the lake was the water
over 4 feet deep except where the alligators had their
holes; in some of these spots there was always danger of
getting in over one’s head. Scattered through the lake were
a few stunted trees similar in appearance to our sour gum,
_Nyssa sylvatica_, and in the decayed stump of one of these
trees I found a nest of the black-bellied tree duck. About
one-third of the surface of the lake was open water and the
remaining two-thirds was covered with a floating plant,
each individual plant measuring about 12 inches across
and resembling lettuce that has not headed up, though the
leaves were coarser, more like cabbage leaves. As this
did not have its roots extending into the mud the entire
mass of vegetation at times changed its position as the
direction of the winds might change and cause the entire
body of vegetation, and again only part of it, to drift to
the opposite side of the lake. The jacanas were, to all
appearances, in no way inconvenienced by these free rides,
though there was always the danger that the eggs might
be lost by the move. During my many visits to this lake
from early April until the middle of August I always found
the jacanas playing or feeding over the surface of the
vegetation. At times the green herons, little blue herons,
and an occasional gallinule, least bittern, or redwing
would be seen feeding on the surface of the lake.
_Courtship._--He refers to the courtship, which must be a very pretty
performance, as follows:
During courtship the birds raise their wings over their
backs very much as the Bartramian sandpipers do and flirt
their wings at each other as if they were attempting to
strike one another with the sharp spurs with which their
wings are armed.
_Nesting._--In the above locality, Mr. Gillin found 38 nests of this
jacana between April 25 and August 15, 1923, of which he says:
I sometimes surprised the birds on their nests, but as a
usual thing they would leave the nest at the first alarm.
The number of eggs was invariably four, though in one
case I collected a set of three. The nests consisted of
a few bits of green leaves of cat-tails and small pieces
of the green leaves of the plants on which they nested,
in all nests containing fresh eggs, though in cases where
the eggs were incubated the nest material had sometimes
turned brown. There was merely enough material to prevent
the eggs from rolling apart or falling through into the
water, though in most cases the bottom side of the eggs was
laying in the water. One day while watching the lake from
a blind I saw a jacana go to its eggs and stand over them
apparently shading them from the hot sun; this position was
maintained for five or six minutes; no attempt was made
to warm the eggs by sitting on them; at the end of this
shading of the eggs the birds went back to feeding near by.
The late Frank B. Armstrong distributed a large number of eggs of the
jacana, taken by his collectors across the Rio Grande in Mexico, mostly
near Tampico or somewhere in the State of Tamaulipas. His data describe
the nests as made of floating weeds or trash on or under the leaves of
lilies or other floating plants, in fresh water ponds.
_Eggs._--The jacana’s eggs are as unique as the bird itself, and can
not be mistaken for anything else. They are ovate to short ovate,
or even rounded ovate, in shape; and they are decidedly glossy. The
ground colors vary from “buckthorn brown” or “Isabella color” to
“chamois.” They are well covered with fantastic scrawls and tangled,
fine, pen-like lines of black; these markings are usually quite
evenly distributed, but they are sometimes concentrated more thickly
at either end or in the middle. The set almost invariably consists
of four eggs, but I have records of a few sets of five and of three;
Mr. Gillin’s series consists of 37 sets of four and one set of three.
The measurements of 50 eggs average 30.1 by 23 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =31.8= by 23.3; 31 by =24.1=, =28.3=
by 22.2, and 30.3 by =21.7= millimeters.
=Young.=--Mr. Gillin says in his notes:
The young run as soon as hatched, and in one case, when I
came upon a nest in which the young had just hatched, they
dived into the water and swam under the water for several
feet before they came to the surface.
_Plumages._--The young jacana in natal down is beautifully marked
with rich colors. A narrow frontal line, the sides of the face and
the entire underparts are white; the crown and nape are “ochraceous
orange,” centrally browner, with a black “crow-foot” on the occiput,
and with a black line from the eye to the hind neck, which is dusky
black; the central area of the back and rump is “burnt sienna,”
bordered on each side by a band of “ochraceous buff,” below which is
an indistinct dusky band; the thighs and the inner joints of the wings
are “burnt sienna”; the outer joint of the wing is white; the tail and
sides of the rump are jet black; and the tibia are dusky black. The
bright colors become duller as the chick grows older.
In fresh juvenal plumage the crown and occiput are “warm sepia,” the
feathers faintly tipped with “cinnamon”; the back and sides of the
neck are brownish black; the back, scapulars and wing coverts are from
“sepia” to “Saccardo’s umber,” the feathers broadly tipped with “tawny”
and with a subterminal dusky bar; a black stripe extends from the eye
to the back side of the neck and a broad stripe of “cream buff” from
the lores, over the eyes to the nape; the sides of the head, chin,
throat, and underparts are white, suffused with “cream buff” on the
breast. A partial postjuvenal body molt takes place during the fall, or
else the edgings entirely wear away leaving only the plain colors of
the upper parts, the juvenal wing coverts and some of the scapulars. In
late winter or early spring, from January to April, a nearly, if not
quite, complete prenuptial molt takes place, which produces a plumage
which is practically adult, including the frontal shield. I have no
data on the molts of adults. In this plumage the female is decidedly
larger, is somewhat more brightly colored and has a larger frontal
shield.
_Food._--Mr. Gillin says in his notes: