TUENSTONE 285 



stones would betray great fear, and they would often join from afar and swoop 

 down on the hated enemy, uttering their sharpest and most violent cries. 



Toward the end of July the young ones were able to fly but were, however, 

 generally accompanied by the old female. The young ones would often resort 

 to the upper part of rather high rocks while the old female incessantly crying 

 and anxiously flapping tried to divert my attention from them. When the old 

 female had left her offspring and the country, these would immediately take 

 to the coast and the mouths of rivers like other young waders. 



Plumages. — The young turnstone in natal down is not brilliantly, 

 yet distinctively, colored. The upper parts, including the sides of 

 the head and neck, wings and thighs, vary from " cream buff " or 

 " chamois " on the crown and wings to " olive buff " on the neck and 

 flanks. The crown, back, wings, rump, and thighs are heavily spotted 

 or broadly striped with black; the center of the crown is largely 

 black and so are the lores; a broad space above the eyes and the 

 forehead are " cream buff," with a black streak in the middle of the 

 latter. There is some whitish in the center of the back and the entire 

 under parts are pure white. 



In full Juvenal plumage, Alaska birds in July, the crown and 

 mantle are dark sepia or blackish brown, the feathers of the crown 

 edged with sandy brown, those of the back broadly edged with 

 " pinkish buff " or " cream buff " and the wing coverts still more 

 broadly edged with " cinnamon buff " ; the tertials are edged with 

 " cinnamon " ; the feathers of the rump, the tail coverts, and the tail 

 are tipped with a buffy wash ; the under parts are similar in pattern 

 to those of the adult, but the black patches are browner and often 

 show buffy tips. The sexes are practically alike in juvenal and 

 winter plumages. 



The first winter plumage is acquired by a partial body molt be- 

 tween August and November ; it can be distinguished from the adult 

 winter plumage by the presence of some retained tertials, scapulars, 

 and wing coverts; also it is not so uniformly dark as the adult, is 

 more streaked with buffy and whitish edgings on the head, neck, and 

 back, and it has less black in the gorget. The two races are dis- 

 tinguishable in this plumage, interpres being darker. 



The first prenuptial molt begins in January ; it is similar to that 

 of the adult but is much less complete. I have seen a young bird in 

 full wing molt in January and think that young birds renew their 

 flight feathers before the first spring. The first nuptial plumage 

 is, I believe, a nonbreeding plumage, as it is worn by birds which 

 spend the summer far south of the breeding range. I have seen 

 birds in this plumage, collected in Florida and Louisiana, in every 

 month from April to August. This plumage resembles the adult 

 nuptial, but the head is more streaked with dusky or black; and 

 in the mantle, scapulars and wing coverts there is a mixture of new 



