. The animals of New Zealand; an account of the dominion's air-breathing vertebrates . s, and some pass through the jNIalay Archipelagoand New Guinea to Australia and Tasmania. In New Zealandit arrives in November, and leaves in March or April, almost allthe birds being in winter plumage. A few remain, however, andtake on their summer plumage, although they have never beenknowu to breed here. Stragglers occasionally spread from Fijithrough eastern Polynesia, but there is no regular migrationeastward of Fiji. THE OYSTER CATCHER 207 Genus Haernatopus. Bill longer than the head, strong, rather co
. The animals of New Zealand; an account of the dominion's air-breathing vertebrates . s, and some pass through the jNIalay Archipelagoand New Guinea to Australia and Tasmania. In New Zealandit arrives in November, and leaves in March or April, almost allthe birds being in winter plumage. A few remain, however, andtake on their summer plumage, although they have never beenknowu to breed here. Stragglers occasionally spread from Fijithrough eastern Polynesia, but there is no regular migrationeastward of Fiji. THE OYSTER CATCHER 207 Genus Haernatopus. Bill longer than the head, strong, rather concave npwards,much compressed at the tip. First quill the longest. Tarsi longerthan the middle toe. Almost cosmopolitan. The Oyster Catcher.— longirostris. Above greenish black; below and over the tail white; bill and legscrimson; a white band on the wing; eye crimson. Length of thewing, 11 in.; of the tarsus, 2 in. Egg—Pale yellow brown, spottedand blotched with brownish black; length, in. Molucca Islands,.Australia, New Zealand, and the Chatham Oyster Catcher. An interesting description of this bird has been given by Mr^Potts, as follows:—Years ago, in 1858, before the shores andestuaries were frequented so much, these shore birds wereexceedingly abundant. Thousands of them were to be seentogether, and, as late as 1871, they were abundant on the mud-flats in Lyttelton Harbour. The oyster catcher is one of thewariest and most restless of our birds. It is always ready withits clamorous alarm-note to wake up each echo and disturb everybird within sound of its shrill cry. But, in the breeding season,. 208 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND it exhil)its an intensity of slyness that is almost it breeds in our river-beds, on the sandy spits, withoutany other shelter than what may be afforded by some drift flax,grass, or stick, near which it makes, or discovers, a slight depres-sion in which to deposit its eggs. These are usually th
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