BLACK TURNSTONE 299 



edges of the Jiow ponds, which are the first to be freed from the 

 ice in spring. After the sea ice has left the shores it repairs to the 

 rocky beach and seeks its food among the stones and seaweeds." 

 H. B. Conover says, in his notes from Hooper Bay : " The first of 

 these birds were noted on May 16, when two were taken as they flew 

 by a small snow-water pond on the tundra. Two days later this 

 species was very common. Next to the western sandpiper it was 

 probably the commonest, as well as the noisiest, wader nesting on 

 the tundra." 



Courtship. — Herbert W. Brandt, who has studied this species on 

 its breeding grounds at Hooper Bay, Alaska, says in his notes: 



The black turnstonos, like many of the other shore birds during the mating 

 season, spend considerable time chasing each other about. The female seems 

 to say to the male, " catch me if you can," and then dashes off with such speed 

 that the pursuer has difficulty in following her, and she usually returns to 

 the same spot from which her zigzag flight began. Often the male will mount 

 high into the air alone, until completely out of sight, and then will produce 

 with his wing or tail feathers, which of the two I have not been able to deter- 

 mine, the same strange zum-zum-zum noise as made by the Wilson snipe. Before 

 the nesting season this feather music could be heard on the flats at any time, 

 and it deceived me at first, as I mistook it for that of the snipe. Later, how- 

 ever, as soon as the nesting duties began, it seemed to cease ; and in this 

 respect, the black turnstone differs from the Wilson snipe, because the feather 

 music of the latter is continued throughout the incubation period. 



Nesting. — The same observer describes the nesting habits as f oUow^ : 



The fantastic shaped shore lines of the lowland brackish ponds furnish 

 ideal homesites for the vivacious black turnstone as it usually chooses, upon 

 which to nest, a little projecting grass-covered point or islet. Quite near the 

 water's edge the bird will hollow a depression in the flattened dead grass and 

 here, often upon the almost bare mud with the eternal ice strata only a few 

 inches beneath, the hardy mother will successfully bring forth a brood. Little 

 effort is made to build a home and the only material therein is the grass that 

 previously grew on or about the site and is flattened down into the basin of 

 the nest. At times there is almost no lining beneath the olive-hued eggs and 

 they are then so besmeared that they appear to have been deliberately rolled 

 in the mud. Occasionally, however, the bird will nest some distance away from 

 the water on a dry site, but always the mode of construction is the same. The 

 range of measurements of 27 nests is : diameter of basin 31/2 to 4iA inches and 

 depth 1 to 2y-2 inches. The undecked nests are easy to find if bordering the pools, 

 provided their general location is known, but the birds keep up such a continual 

 clamor that it is difficult to guess their chosen area. In favored places they 

 breed in such close proximity to one another that they appear to colonize. In 

 no case like the other Charadriidae did I observe these birds about the nest to 

 feign lameness or distress. Incubation spots were found on both of the parents. 



Eggs. — I can not do better than to quote Mr. Brandt's description 

 of the eggs, as follows : 



The eggs of the black turnstone, invariably four to the nest, are subpyriform 

 to ovate pyriform in shape, and unlike the glossy egg of the ruddy turnstone. 



