218 



MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Fig. 59. Turnstone. 



From Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's Water Birds 



of North America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 



Distribution. — Arctic America, from the Mackenzie River eastward; 

 southward in migration, chiefly coastwise, to Patagonia and the Falkland 

 Islands. 



Normally a bird of the sea shore this species occurs regularly, though 

 usually in small numbers, along the shores of the Great Lakes, and probably 

 in rare instances inland. Major 

 Boies says: "I killed a number 

 of these birds in the fall of 1894, 

 on the eastern shore of Neebish 

 Island, St. Mary's River [two 

 specimens in College Museum]; 

 also saw them quite plentiful on 

 Crescent Key, on the west side. I 

 found them quite agreeable eating 

 as they were quite fat" (Bull. 

 Mich. Orn. Club, I, 1897, 20). 

 Mr. Newell A. Eddy states that 

 he found the Turnstone common 

 at the mouth of the Saginaw 

 River on May 30, 1900, "where 

 it occurred in flocks as well as 

 singly." He took a male, which 

 is now in his collection, and says he could easily have taken many more. 

 According to Dr. Gibbs a specimen was taken by Mr. Corwin at Austin's 

 Lake, Kalamazoo county. May 20, 1878. He also states that since that 

 time others have been shot in Kalamazoo county, and it does not appear 

 to be a very rare migrant. We have recently obtained for the college col- 

 lection two specimens in nearly perfect breeding plumage taken near For- 

 estville, Sanilac county, June 3, 1904, by Mr. Albert Hirzel. 



Mr. N. A. Wood, with the biological survey party, found the Turnstone 

 rather common as a migrant along the shore of Huron county, from Aug. 

 20 to 27, 1908. Again in 1910, with the Mershon expedition, the species 

 was found in small numbers on the Charity Islands, Saginaw Bay, from 

 Aug. 6 to 24. Mr. B. H. Swales records a flock of 30 seen at Grosse Isle, 

 Wayne county. May 29, 1910 (Auk XXVII, 1910, 452). 



Mcllwraith states that at Hamilton Beach, Ontario, ''It is a regular 

 visitor in spring and fall, but there are seldom more than two or three found 

 together. Young and old are observed together in September and hnger 

 till the end of that month, when they move farther south " (Birds of Ontario, 

 1894, p. 168). In Kumlien and Hollister's Birds of Wisconsin (page 55) 

 the Turnstone is said to be not uncommon as a migrant especially in spring. 

 "Small numbers remain about Lake Koshkonong well into June, and a 

 few, in exceptional j^'ears, remained all summer, but there was no evidence 

 that they bred. We have seen these birds about Ontonagon, Michigan, 

 in the latter part of July, and Green Bay late in June; still they unques- 

 tionably breed only far north of us." Butler states that "except along 

 Lake Michigan it is almost unknown. There are but two records from the 

 interior of the state" (Birds of Indiana, 1897, 745). In northeastern 

 Illinois, according to Nelson, "it is a common migrant along Lake Michigan. 

 Arrives May 15, in full breeding plumage and is found until the first week 

 in June. Returns early in August, still in breeding plumage, which is ex- 

 changed for that of winter during the last of the month. Departs about 

 the 20th of September. While here they are generall}' found in company 



