primaries. China, Japan and possibly eastern Asia in general have an Oyster-catcher which seems to be intermediate between the last and the first. This has received the name of H. osculans; but doubts have been expressed as to its deserving specific recognition. Then we have a group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implication of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may be called blood-red. H. niger, which frequents both coasts of the northern Pacific, has, it is true, yellow legs, but towards the extremity of South America its place is taken by H. ater, in which they are bright red, and this bird is further remarkable for its laterally compressed and much upturned bill. The South African H. capensis has also scarlet legs; but in the otherwise very similar bird of Australia and New Zealand, H. unicolor, these members are of a pale brick-colour. (A. N.)
OYSTERMOUTH, or The Mumbles, an urban district and seaside resort in the Gower division of Glamorganshire, south Wales, situated on the western bend of Swansea Bay, 412 m. S.W. of Swansea, with which it is connected by the steam-tramway of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway Company, constructed in 1804. The London and North-Western railway has also a station at Mumbles Road, 212 m. N. of Oystermouth. Pop. (1901) 4461. The castle, which belongs to the duke of Beaufort as lord of the seigniory of Gower, is an imposing ruin, nobly situated on a rocky knoll overlooking the bay. Its great hall and chapel with their traceried Gothic windows are fairly well preserved. The earliest structure (probably only a “peel” tower), built in the opening years of the 12th century, probably by Maurice de Londres, was destroyed by the Welsh in 1215. The early English features of the square keep indicate that it was soon rebuilt, by one of the De Breos lords (see Gower). In 1284 Edward I. stayed here two days as the guest of William de Breos, and from that time on it became the chief residence in Gower of the lords seignior and subsequently of their stewards, and their chancery was located here till its abolition in 1535. The parish church, which has an embattled tower, was restored in 1860, when fragments of Roman tessellated pavement were found in various parts of the churchyard. Roman coins were also found in the village in 1822 and 1837—all indicating that there had been a small settlement here in Roman times. The name of the castle appears in the Welsh chronicles as Ystum Llwynarth, which, by the elision of the penultimate, was probably changed by false analogy into Oystermouth—the bay being noted for its oyster beds. Its church is mentioned in the cartulary of Gloucester (1141) as Ostrenuwe.
The village itself is straggling and uninteresting, but the high ground between it and the pretty bays of Langland and Caswell on the southern side of the headland fronting the open channel is dotted with well-built villas and commands magnificent views. The headland terminates in two rocky islands, which to sailors coming up the channel would appear like the breasts of “mammals,” whence the comparatively modern name, The Mumbles, is supposed to be derived. On the outer of these rocks is a lighthouse erected in 1794 and maintained by the Swansea Harbour Trust. The district is rapidly increasing in popularity as a seaside resort. A pier was erected by the Mumbles Railway Company at a cost of £12,000 in 1898. The fishing industry, once prosperous, has much diminished in importance, but there are still oyster-beds in the bay.
OZANAM, ANTOINE FRÉDÉRIC (1813–1853), French scholar, was born at Milan on the 23rd of April 1813. His family, which was of Jewish extraction, had been settled in the Lyonnais for many centuries, and had reached distinction in the third generation before Frederic through Jacques Ozanam (1640–1717), an eminent mathematician. Ozanam’s father, Antoine, served in the armies of the republic, but betook himself, on the advent of the empire, to trade, teaching, and finally medicine. The boy was brought up at Lyons and was strongly influenced by one of his masters, the Abbé Noirot. His conservative and religious instincts showed themselves early, and he published a pamphlet against Saint-Simonianism in 1831, which attracted the attention of Lamartine. In the following year he was sent to study law at Paris, where he fell in with the Ampère family, and through them with Chateaubriand, Lacordaire, Montalembert, and other leaders of the neo-Catholic movement. Whilst still a student he took up journalism and contributed considerably to Bailly’s Tribune catholique, which became (November 1, 1833) L’univers. In conjunction with other young men he founded in May 1833 the celebrated charitable society of St Vincent de Paul, which numbered before his death upwards of two thousand members. He received the degree of doctor of law in 1836, and in 1838 that of doctor of letters with a thesis on Dante, which was the beginning of one of his best-known books. A year later he was appointed to a professorship of commercial law at Lyons, and in 1840 assistant professor of foreign literature at the Sorbonne. He married in June 1841, and visited Italy on his wedding tour. At Fauriel’s death in 1844 he succeeded to the full professorship of foreign literature. The short remainder of his life was extremely busy with his professorial duties, his extensive literary occupations, and the work, which he still continued, of district-visiting as a member of the society of St Vincent de Paul. During the revolution of 1848, of which he took an unduly sanguine view, he once more turned journalist for a short time in the Ère nouvelle and other papers. He travelled extensively, and was in England at the time of the Exhibition of 1851. His naturally weak constitution fell a prey to consumption, which he hoped to cure by visiting Italy, but he died on his return at Marseilles on the 8th of September 1853.
Ozanam was the leading historical and literary critic in the neo-Catholic movement in France during the first half of the 19th century. He was more learned, more sincere, and more logical than Chateaubriand; less of a political partisan and less of a literary sentimentalist than Montalembert. In contemporary movements he was an earnest and conscientious advocate of Catholic democracy and socialism and of the view that the church should adapt itself to the changed political conditions consequent to the Revolution. In his writings he dwelt upon important contributions of historical Christianity, and maintained especially that, in continuing the work of the Caesars, the Catholic church had been the most potent factor in civilizing the invading barbarians and in organizing the life of the middle ages. He confessed that his object was “to prove the contrary thesis to Gibbon’s,” and, although any historian who begins with the desire to prove a thesis is quite sure to go more or less wrong, Ozanam no doubt administered a healthful antidote to the prevalent notion, particularly amongst English-speaking peoples, that the Catholic church had done far more to enslave than to elevate the human mind. His knowledge of medieval literature and his appreciative sympathy with medieval life admirably qualified him for his work, and his scholarly attainments are still highly esteemed.
His works were published in eleven volumes (Paris, 1862–1865). They include Deux chanceliers d’Angleterre, Bacon de Verulam et Saint Thomas de Cantorbéry (Paris, 1836); Dante et la philosophie catholique an XIIIème siècle (Paris, 1839; 2nd ed., enlarged 1845); Études germaniques (2 vols., Paris, 1847–1849), translated by A. C. Glyn as History of Civilization in the Fifth Century (London, 1868); Documents inédits pour servir à l’histoire de l’Italie depuis le VIIIème siècle jusqu’au XIIème (Paris, 1850); Les poëtes franciscains en Italie au XIIIème siècle (Paris, 1852). His letters have been partially translated into English by A. Coates (London, 1886).
There are French lives of Ozanam by his brother, C. A. Ozanam (Paris, 1882); Mme. E. Humbert (Paris, 1880); C. Huit (Paris, 1882); M. de Lambel (Paris, 1887); L. Curnier (Paris, 1888); and B. Faulquier (Paris, 1903). German lives by F. X. Karker (Paderborn, 1867) and E. Hardy (Mainz, 1878); and an interesting English biography by Miss K. O’Meara (Edinburgh, 1867; 2nd ed., London, 1878). (C. H. Ha.)
OZIERI, a town of Sardinia in the province of Sassari, from which it is 34 m. E.S.E. by rail. Pop. (1901) 9555. It is situated 1280 ft. above sea-level on a steep slope, but faces north, and so is not very healthy. In the centre of the town is a square with a fine fountain of 1594. The cathedral was restored in 1848; it is the seat of the diocese of Bisarcio. The former cathedral of this diocese lies some distance to the N.W.; it is a fine Romanesque building of the 12th and 13th centuries. The district of Ozieri
