105 



A small Plover well called meloda. It is a sand-beach bird and never 

 seen in grassy or marshy stituations. Some individuals have broken and 

 others complete black breast-bands. The latter were for some time re- 

 garded as a subspecies but now all are included under the one form. The 

 Snowy Flover, ^gialitis nivosa, has been taken on lake Ontario, but is probably 

 not to be expected again. It is slightly smaller than the Piping, of same 

 general coloration but with a dark aural or cheek patch, and only a spot 

 of dark at the sides of the breast instead of a complete bar across it. A more 

 southern and western bird and can only occur as a straggler. 



FAMILY — APHRIZID^. TURNSTONES. 



General Description. Medium-sized Shore Birds with bill (Figure 27, p. 22) moder- 

 ately short, homy for the terminal half, tip slightly flattened (in a horizontal plane) but 

 not distinctly enlarged as in the Plover. 



A small famil}' of world-wide distribution. Only one species of this 

 family in eastern Canada. 



283a. Turnstone, ruddy Turnstone. American Turnstone, carriquet plo"uer 



CALICO PLOVER. FR. — LA TOURNE-PIERRE A POITRINE NOIRE. TOURNE PIERRE. Arcn- 



aria interpres. L, 9-50. 



Distinctions. A strikingly coloured bird. Back in rather broad masses of dull red, 

 black, and white more or less intermixed. Rump and head white, the crown striped with 

 brown or black. Underparts pure white, with black breast-band, extending up side of neck 

 to face where it makes a circle through the eye and around a white loral spot. Autumn 

 birds have the colours subdued and the back coloration lost or only faintly represented, 

 but enough of the face and breast markings always remain to suggest the above diagnosis. 



Field Marks. The pecuhar pied coloration In red, black, and white of the spring 

 plumage. In the autumn the white lower back and upper tail coverts separated by a dark 

 bar. 



Nesting. Depression in the ground lined with a few dead leaves or vegetable fibres. 



Distribution. The Turnstone as a species has one of the widest distributions of any 

 bird, there being few countries where it has not occurred. The American subspecies 

 representative of the species, the Ruddy Turnstone, breeds from the Arctic coast west of 

 Hudson Bay northward, and is more common on the Atlantic than the Pacific coast; 

 locally common, in migration, in the Great Lakes region. 



SUBSPECIES. The Turnstone is represented in America by a subspecies, the 

 Ruddy Turnstone A. i. morinella, though the typical form is said to occur in western 

 Alaska. 



A bird of sandy, muddy, or rocky shores, but preferring the first. 

 It is named from its habit of turning over small stones and pebbles on the 

 beach searching for food beneath them, and it is astonishing what com- 

 paratively large stones it can move. It inserts its bill under the edge, 

 gives a little fillip, and away goes the stone rolling or skidding over the 

 beach to a considerable distance. It is a comparatively good swimmer. 

 It differs from the Old World Turnstone only in slightly smaller size, less 

 black on the upperparts, and the stronger coloration of the legs. 



FAMILY — HiEMATOPODIDiE. OYSTER CATCHERS. 



General Description. Large Shore Bird more heavily built than is usual in the order; 

 bill stout and horny, flattened laterally (sideways) at tip. There is only one species that 

 may perhaps occur in eastern Canada. 



286. American Oyster-catcher, h^matopus palliatus. L, 19. Head, neck, 

 and upper breast, black; back, olive-brown with contrasting white wing-patch and rump. 

 All underparts, pure white; bill, large, bright red. 



Distribution. Atlantic coast north to Virginia. Formerly to New Jersey and acci- 

 dental to New Brimswick. Probably bred throughout its range. 



