FAMILY SCOLOPACIDAE 4O9 



Description. — Length, 225 to 240 mm. Breeding dress, head promi- 

 nently white, with lores, forehead, cheeks, and fine streaks over crown 

 black ; upper back, middle wing coverts and tertials cinnamon, heavily 

 spotted with black ; lesser and greater wing coverts grayish brown, the 

 latter tipped prominently with white ; lower back and upper tail 

 coverts white ; lower rump black ; primaries and secondaries fuscous 

 to black; tail white on base, black at tip, edged and tipped with cin- 

 namon and white ; throat, sides of lower neck, under side of wing, and 

 rest of under parts white ; sides of throat and upper foreneck black, 

 continuous with the broad black band across the lower foreneck and 

 breast. 



Winter plumage, differs from the breeding dress in the absence of 

 cinnamon, and with the black replaced by dark grayish brown to 

 fuscous ; head with less white. 



Iris brown; bill dull black; tarsus and toes yellowish to reddish 

 orange ; claws black. 



Measurements (from Ridgway, I.e., p. 52). — Males, wing 139.5- 

 155 (145.5), tail 56.5-64 (60), exposed culmen 21.5-24 (22.9), tarsus 

 22.5-26 (24.5) mm. 



Females, wing 144-157.5 (148.6), tail 57-63 (60.4), exposed cul- 

 men 21.5-24 (22.9), tarsus 23-25.5 (24.5) mm. 



Migrant from the north. Common along both coasts of Panama ; 

 Isla Coiba ; Isla del Rey, Isla Saboga. 



Turnstones, migrants to Panama from the far north, are birds of 

 the seashore, where they range on both sand and rock beaches. Usu- 

 ally they are found in little flocks of 3 or 4 to a dozen, often with, or 

 near, other groups of shorebirds. When the tide is low they move 

 along actively, with low, chattering calls, sometimes pecking quickly 

 at the sand, and sometimes, with a quick jerk of the head, flipping over 

 small pebbles to expose what may be hidden beneath — the habit 

 common to them throughout the world from which the common names 

 are taken. At high tide they rest, preen, and doze, often on rocky 

 points, to await the next stage of low water. 



The northern migrants appear to arrive in August ; most leave for 

 the north in April, though a few nonbreeding birds may be found 

 during the northern summer. T. A. Imhof recorded them in 1942 

 along the Fort Amador causeway on May 14, June 15, and July 21, 

 and Eisenmann (Wilson Bull., 1950, pp. 182, 183) reported this spe- 

 cies July 13, 1950, near Panama Viejo. There is a specimen in the 

 U. S. National Museum taken near Fort Kobbe on July 24, 1961. 



