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Miss Innis Dorrien-Smith,



tide would wash away any structure erected, and they are nearly

always seen hunting for their food amongst the stones and seaweed,

or running about just on the water’s edge or on the flat sands

when the tide is low.


A few years ago the question was raised as to whether they

bred here, and a man living in one of the islands produced what

decidedly appeared to be a turnstone’s egg which he had found on

one of the outer islands called Annet, where sea birds and sea pink

abound in the spring-time. It is possible they may have nested, but

it has never been absolutely authenticated, though the egg seems

fairly conclusive evidence, and I see in Gould’s book of “ Birds of

Great Britain,” a turnstone’s egg was found amongst a collection

belonging to a fisherman in the Fame Islands and picked up there.

I was under the impression that their nesting place was under

ledges of rocks on the sea-shore, but, again in Gould’s beautiful

book of birds I find he gives a description, quoted from Mr. Hewitson

who went in search of their nesting place on the coast of Norway.

He says: “ We had visited numerous little islands with little en¬

couragement and were about to land on a flat rock, bare, except

where here and there grew tufts of grass and stunted juniper cling¬

ing to its surface, when our attention was attracted by the singular

cry of a turnstone which in its eager watch had seen our approach

and had perched itself upon an eminence of the rock, assuring us by

its querulous oft-repeated note and anxious motions that its nest

was there. We remained in the boat for a short time, until we had

watched it behind a tuft of grass, near which, after a minute’s search

we succeeded in finding the nest. It was placed against the ledge of

a rock, consisted of nothing more than the dropping leaves of a

juniper bush under a creeping branch of which the eggs, four in

number, were snugly concealed and admirably sheltered from the

many storms, by which these bleak and exposed rocks are visited,

allowing just sufficient room for the bird to cover them. We after¬

wards found many more nests with little difficulty although requiring

a very close search.”


I have never myself attempted to keep any of the waders in

captivity, being blessed with the great advantage of seeing them here

in their wild state. I am told that turnstones have been successfully



