120 PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



Reuiaiiuler of the lower ixirts, upper part of the vumii. upper tail-coverts, and ends of secondaries, 

 l)ure white. Breedintj-plumwie : Upper parts dusky liluckish, the Aving-coverts lighter, more 

 brownish <^ray, the featliei-s showing darker centres ; back and scapulars little, if at all, varied with 

 rufous; crown dusky, uniform, or streaked. Spring (and ^miter ?) plumage: Upper p>arts mixed 

 black and Ijriglit rufous, the latter color occupying chiefly the middle of the back (longitudinally) 

 and the wiiig-ccjverts, the scapulars and tcrtials mixed black and rufous. Pileuni more streaked 

 with white, and markings about the head and neck more sharply defined than in the summer dress. 

 "Bill black; iris hazel; feet deep orange-red, claws black" (Audubon). Young: Head cliicfly 

 mottled grayish, without well-defined markings ; black of the jugnlum and breast indicated l)y 

 mottled dusky, occupying the same area, but not .sharply defined ; upper parts grayish dusky, the 

 feathers bordered terminally with buft' or whitish. 



Total length about 9 inches; wing, G.OO ; tail, 2.50; culmen, .80-. 90; tarsus, 1.00; middle 

 toe, .75. 



:> Jf- 



1 

 il *1 



Spring plumage. 



The variations noted in a series of more than sixty specimens of this species are chiefly individ- 

 ual and seasonal. Examples are variously intermediate, according to the season, between the two 

 quite distinct stages of plumage described above as the breeding and the winter dress. Unfortu- 

 nately there are very few specimens from other countries than America, so that we cannot say 

 whether those from different continents dift'er perceptibly. Two European examples, however, in 

 the winter livery, seem identical with American skins. 



The specimens in the dark, duU-coloreil summer plumage have been erroneously considered as 

 showing a tendency toward the characters of S. melanocephalus, or forming the " connecting link " 

 between that species and »S'. interpres — this view being apparently based on geographical consider- 

 ations, the specimens upon which this o]nnion was founded coming from the Pryliilof Islands. 

 Specimens in the same plumage occur, however, throughout the northern regions, including the 

 Old World, and apparently represent simply the summer dress. 



The series of summer specimens from other localities than Alaska, however, is unfortunately 

 very small ; and it may possibly prove true, that what we have described above as the breeding- 

 plumage of true S. interpres represents really a darker-colored Alaskan race, and that the brighter- 

 colored plumage described as the winter dress is really the full l)reeding- plumage of true interpres. 

 However this may be, the dark Alaskan birds have nothing whatever to do with S. melanocephalus, 

 wln'ch has not only very different proportions, but also in every stage a conspicuously different 

 ]iattern of coloration. 



The Common Turnstone is one of the most widely distributed and at the same 

 time one of the most abundant of birds. Breeding in great numbers in all the high 

 Arctic regions, and in the northern portions of both continents, it wanders thence 

 southward over all lands. It is found at certain seasons on both the Atlantic and 

 Pacific shores, and also in the interior of North and South America, as far even as the 

 Straits of Magellan. It has been taken in various parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. 



