THE TURNSTONE 251 
with a sudden quick jerk of the head pushed it off, when it quickly 
picked up the food which was thus exposed to view, and walked 
deliberately to the next shell to perform the same operation. In 
several instances, when the clusters of oyster-shells or clods of 
mud were too heavy to be removed in the ordinary way, they would 
not only use the bill and head, but also the breast, pushing the 
object with all their strength, and reminding me of the labour 
which I have undergone in turning over a large turtle. Among the 
seaweeds that had been cast on shore, they used only the bili, 
tossing the garbage from side to side with a dexterity extremely 
pleasant to behold In like manner I saw there four Turnstones 
examine almost every part of the shore along a space of from thirty 
to forty yards; after which I drove them away, that our hunters 
might not kill them cn their return.’ 
A writer in the Zoologist® gives an equally interesting account 
of the successful efforts of two Turnstones to turn over the dead 
body of a cod-fish, nearly three and a half feet long, which had 
been imbedded in the sand to about the depth of two inches. 
For an account of the habits of the Turnstone during the 
breeding season—it never breeds with us—we are indebted to Mr. 
Hewitson, who fell in with it on the coast of Norway. He says, 
‘We had visited numerous islands with little encouragement, and 
were about to land upon a flat rock, bare, except where here and 
there grew tufts of grass or stunted juniper clinging 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 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 a short time, until we had watched it behind 
a tuft of grass, near which, after a minute search, we succeeded in 
finding the nest in a situation in which I should never have expected 
to meet a bird of this sort breeding ; it was placed against a ledge 
of the rock, and consisted of nothing more than the dropping leaves 
of the 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. 
_ 2 From this habit, the Turnstone is in Norfolk called a ‘ Tangie-picker ’— 
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