AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

1045. Haematopus moquini

1045. AFRICAN BLACK OYSTER-CATCHER.
HAEMATOPUS MOQUINI.
Hoematopus moquini, Bp. Comp. rend, xliii. p. 1020 (1856) ; Dresser, ix. p. 359, pl. 711 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiv. p. 119 ; H. capensis (Licht.), Verz. Doubl, p. 73 (1823 nom. nud.) ; Meade Waldo, Ibis, 1889, p. 13.
Corveno, in Graciosa ; Grajo do Mar, on Lanzarote ; Cuervo marino, on Fuerteventura.
Male ad. (Fuerteventura). Entire plumage dark sooty black ; bill and bare part round the eye coral-red ; legs deep crimson ; iris bright red. Culmen 3.45, wing 9.8, tail 4.3, tarsus 2.0 inch. Sexes alike.
Hab. South Africa, north to the Red Sea and Gaboon ; Canaries ; Madeira.
In habits it does not appear to differ from H. ostralegus. It breeds in the Canaries and in South Africa, depositing its eggs, usually 2, but sometimes 4, in number, on the sand or shingle just above high-water mark. The eggs are greyish cream- coloured, somewhat sparsely covered with coarse, irregular wavy, black and dark brown broken lines, and measure about 2.6 by 1.9.
According to Pallas (Zoogr. Ross. As. ii. p. 131), the West American Oyster-catcher, Hoematopus niger, occurs on the Kurile Islands, but so far as I can ascertain no specimen has been obtained there.

BookTitle: 
A Manual Of Palaearctic Birds
Reference: 
Dresser, Henry Eeles. A Manual of Palaearctic Birds. Vol. 2. 1903.
Title in Book: 
1045. Haematopus moquini
Book Author: 
H. E. Dresser
CatNo: 
1045
Year: 
1903
Page No: 
752
Common name: 
African Black Oyster Catcher
M_ID: 
3950
M_CN: 
African Oystercatcher
M_SN: 
Haematopus moquini
Volume: 
Vol. 2
id: 
9940

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