360 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



passed to protect the Plover, Curlew, Dough-bird and Chicken- 

 bird at night. 



It was considered of much economic importance then 

 because of its numbers and food value. Although its flocks 

 were never very large, they were numerous all along the coast, 

 and it was found on the shores of inland rivers in the fall 

 migration, though never very common away from the salt 

 water, except, perhaps, on the large lakes of the interior. 

 Notwithstanding its numbers on our coasts have decreased 

 greatly, it is still rather common, except in certain localities, 

 where it seems to have become rare. This probably was one 

 of the shore birds which formerly remained here through the 

 summer, for Mr. N. B. Moore found several non-breeding 

 birds in Florida throughout the months of June and July, and 

 according to Wayne it still summers on the coast of South 

 Carolina, but does not breed. ^ Emmons (Massachusetts, 

 1833) regards it as breeding "in this climate," but while a few 

 may have summered here at that time there is no specific 

 evidence that it ever bred here. 



The Turnstone received its name from its habit of turning 

 over pebbles, oyster shells and other objects that it found on the 

 beach. I often have observed it at work on the pebbly beach 

 of Buzzards Bay and on the shores of Cape Cod. It loves the 

 foot of a rocky cliff or a beach with great stones partly sub- 

 merged by the tide, but is common also on sandy beaches near 

 the pounding surf, and on bars bared by the tide. Sometimes 

 it is seen in marshes or along the banks of tidal creeks. It 

 prods the sand with its beak, follows the retreating wave, 

 raises pebbles from their beds, oftentimes squatting, heaving 

 and working hard to dislodge them. Sometimes it pushes 

 with its breast against a stone or shell in the effort to overturn 

 it, or even digs beneath to undermine it when it is too firmly 

 imbedded to be moved otherwise. It turns over bundles of 

 seaweed, and "roots" out weeds and sea mosses, as Dr. Town- 

 send says "like a little pig." These labors are undertaken in 

 the hope of finding something eatable beneath such objects, 

 and the little laborer often is rewarded. Dawson states that 



I Wayne, A. T.: Birds of South Carolina, 1910, pp. 61, 62. 



