BLACK TUBNSTONE 497 



in inches l.fjS to 1.85 by 1.10 to 1.19. The ground-color is light 

 gray or drab, witli an olive tinge, marked (finely?) with spots of 

 liglit brown and lilac (Reed, 1904, p. 132; Baird, Brewer and Ridg- 

 way, 1884, I, p. 126). 



■ Nelson (1887, pp. 129-130) says of the Black Turnstone: 



It breeds among the brackish pools on Saint Michaels Island, and is found 

 scattered over the wet flats everywhere. It is one of the commonest birds of 

 this locality, its sharp, clear note breaking the silence wherever one turns his 

 steps among the pools and marshy places. It has a habit of circling around 

 the intruder, during the nesting season, with a fine, clear, peeping cry like 

 the syllables weet, weet, too-weet, as it moves restlessly about; now stopping a 

 moment on a slight knoll, then running hastily along the edge of a neighbor- 

 ing pool, perhaps picking up a scrap of food as it runs, and then it mounts 

 on wing again and comes careening about, evincing the liveliest distress at the 

 invasion of its haunts. When disturbed in the vicinity of its nest it has also a 

 sharp peet, ireet, weet, very similar to the well-known note of the Spotted Sand- 

 piper. Let the hunter go where he will on the marshy ground and his ear is 

 greeted by the same remonstrance. 



They are found along the course of the Lower Yukon during the summer 

 season and breed wherever found. When the j'oung are able to take wing in 

 July they leave the flats, to a great extent, and frequent the sea-coast, where 

 they keep in small straggling parties searching for food along the tide line. 



The food of the Black Turnstone probably consists of small marine 

 animals such as are taken by other waders frequenting similar forage 

 grounds ; but we have very little definite information on the subject. 

 A specimen taken May 22, 1896, by C. L. Hall at Saint Michaels, 

 Alaska, and now in the collection of the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology, was feeding on heath berries when secured. This must be 

 considered out of the ordinary — an emergency item of fare. Torrey 

 (1913, p. 37) mentions certain marine Crustacea as included in its 

 diet, and Kells (1895, p. 64) says the Black Turnstone takes small 

 "slugs," while according to Cooper (in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 

 1884, I, p. 125) it feeds on barnacles, as does the Surf-bird. 



Locally restricted in its range, and not occurring anywhere in 

 the numbers exhibited by most shore birds, this species will never 

 take an important rank among the game species of California. On 

 the coast of Washington, Suckley (in Cooper and Suckley, 1859, p. 

 234) says that in October he "... . found them usually fat, and 

 comparing favorably with the tattlers and sandpipers as articles of 

 food." But there is no evidence that they have ever been made a 

 special object of pursuit by sportsmen in California. No change in 

 their relative abundance has been noted. Like their littoral associates 

 we can but look upon Black Turnstones as essential and attractive 

 figures in the avian life of our seashores. 



