692 THE RUDDY TURNSTONE. 



Authorities. — Strcpsilas iiitcrprts (Linn.) 111., Baird, Kip. I'ac. K. K. Surv., 

 Vol. JX., 1X58, p. 70J. C&S. Kh. 

 Specimens. — 1 'ruv. 



WE reserve tiie right to feel aggrieved tliat this beautiful creature will 

 not stay and make his home with us. We have done our best to "advertise 

 the country." We ha\e even tried to induce our fellow-men with the guns 

 to discriminate between the real game, i. e.. birds with bodies big enough to 

 be really wurtli eating, and animated bunches of feathers, like these, worth 

 infinitely more as food for the eye. But the Turnstone tarries not in our in- 

 hospitable clime. And it is well, perhaps, for he is ever a sociable creature; 

 ami where two or three shore birds are gathered together, there shall the 

 gunner be t(.) plot and destroy. 



And we are thankful that the Turnstone's beauty graces our shores if but 

 for a season. Indeed, this handsome wader is a bird of catholic taste, and may 

 appear during migrations under widely \arying conditions. Sand beaches 

 have first choice, and to see the pied pipers pattering after the retreating wave, 

 or else submitting to its pla\ful buffeting, is intleed a pretty sight. Here 

 also the birds scratch after the manner of chickens, earning thereby the name 

 Chicken Plover. Or if the)' tire of the sand, they patter among the pebbles, up- 

 setting industriously those which are likely to harbor hidden sweets of bug 

 I >r worm. 



Rough, tide-washed rocks come in for second choice; and altho the birds 

 cannot do anv stone-tin"ning here, thev take ample toll of the clinging crea- 

 tures, limpets and their ilk. wliicli re(|uire a poke and a pry to con\'ince them. 

 They mingle here with their c(.)usins, the Black Turnstones, and altho I have 

 seen a large company of tlie latter recei\e a brigliter pair with some show of 

 haughtiness, 1 think the\' soon estaljlisli tlieir welcome. 



But a ii\'er bar or an alkaline plash, in the interior of tlie State, is as 

 likelv to win an hour froiu this l)ird in ])assing; and I ha\-e seen stray indi- 

 viduals, installed as guides, riding the pile booms of Drayton Harljor in 

 comi)an\' with lialf a tliousand little "\\'esterns." 



Once, in Ohio, 1 was surprised and delighted, in view of the late date, 

 June 4th, 1003, to see a flock of sixteen of these waders feeding industriously 

 . on a large patch of reclaimed swanij) land near Port Clinton. By cautious ap- 

 proach under co\-er of a d\ke 1 was able to see that both sexes were about 

 e<|uallv re])resented in the flock; and noted, again, the patchy ])attern of white, 

 black, and intense rufous, as it was thrown into relief 1)\- the black, nnicky 

 .soil. The birds were silent and intent only upon feeding. This they did by ad- 

 vancing slowly over the plowed ground and gleaning from its surface, and by 

 turning over the clods which lay in their path to search eagerly beneath. It 

 was rather amusing to see a liird walk up to a clod bigger than itself and 



