998 TUR TLB— TYRA NT 



islands as the Canai'ies, Azores and many of those in the British 

 seas, it has been inferred that these birds may breed in such j^laces. 

 In some cases this may prove to be true, but in most evidence to 

 that effect is wanting. In America the breeding-range of this 

 species has not been defined. In Europe there is good reason to 

 suppose that it includes Shetland ; but it is on the north-western 

 coast of the continent, from Jutland to the extreme north of Nor- 

 way, that the greatest number are reared. The nest, contrary to 

 the habits of most Limicolx, is generally placed under a ledge of 

 rock which shelters the bird from observation,^ and therein are laid 

 four eggs, of a light olive-green, closely blotched with brown, and 

 hardly to be mistaken for those of any other bird. A second 

 species of Turnstone is admitted by some authors and denied by 

 others. This is the 8. melanocephalus of the Pacific coast of North 

 America, which is said to be on the average larger than *S'. interpres^ 

 and it never exhibits any of the chestnut colouring. 



Though the genus Strepsilas seems to be rightly placed among 

 the CharadriiiM (Plover), it occupies a somewhat abnormal posi- 

 tion among them, and in the form of its pointed beak and its 

 variegated coloration has hardly any very near relative. 



TURTLE or TURTLE-DOVE, Fr. TourtereUe, Germ. Turfeltauhe, 

 Lat. Turtur, see DoVE (p. 165). Greenland Turtle and Sea-Turtle 

 are sailors' names for the Black Guillemot (p. 399). 



TWITE, the name apparently first recorded by Albin (N. H. 

 Birds, iii. pi. Ixxiv. p. 69) in 1737 for what is often known as the 

 Mountain-LiNNET (p. 516). 



TWOPENNY -CHICK, a creole name in Jamaica for the 

 White-chinned Thrush of that island, Turdus aurantius or Semi- 

 menda aurantia (cf. Latham, Gen. H. B. x. p. 32 ; Gosse, B. Jam. 

 p. 138). 



TYRANT or TYRANT -BIRD, in its modern sense a name 

 originating in 1731 M'ith Catesby {N. H. Carol, i. p. 55), who applied 



it solely to Avhat is now generally known 

 as the King-bird (p. 482), of which 

 enough has been said, but apparently 

 as much in reference to its bright crown, 

 resembling that of the Goldcrest,^ as 

 to its tyrannical behaviour to other 

 birds. On this species, being the Musci- 

 capa fi/rannus of Linnasus, was founded 

 LicHENOPs. (After swainson.) ^^^ ^^^^^ Tyrannus of Cuvier, and sub- 



^ There is little external difference between tlie sexes, and the brightly- 

 contrasted colours of the hen-bird seem to require some kind of concealment. 

 - The riipavvos of Aristotle was undoubtedly the Goldcrest, the 'La.tin licgulus. 



