BIRDS OF ICELAND 87 



South Africa ! Grondal in his more recent writings 

 {Shjrsla, p. 42) retracts this statement, and calls the 

 bird a ' farfugl,' i.e. migrant. 



Turnstones are very solitary birds in their breeding 

 quarters (almost like the Dotterel, Euclromiasmorinellus, 

 in this respect), and may be easily missed in the hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of suitable ground, unless 

 one chances to walk near the nest ; then the parents are 

 very vociferous indeed. In fact, all that is generally 

 seen of breeding Turnstones is comprised in a sight of 

 the old birds, in early autumn, leading their young ones 

 down a river from the fells to the coast by easy stages. 



The nest is a mere depression in the moss or lichen 

 on a hill-top ; it has a few bits of grass and scraps of 

 moss or lichen for lining, in which are laid four pyri- 

 form eggs, greenish grey buff in ground colour, rather 

 boldly spotted and blotched with blue-grey and black. 

 Length about ll inches. 



The old birds at that season are white below and on 

 the back, and chestnut mottled with black above, while 

 the white head and breast are streaked and variegated 

 with a number of black bars and patches. For a fuller 

 description I may refer the reader to Howard Saunders' 

 Manual, or to my own in Britisli Birds, their Nests and 

 Eggs, where I have pretty fully described the changes 

 of plumage in all this class of birds. The length of 

 the adult is 9 inches, wing about G inches. The food 

 inland consists of small beetles, flies, and anything in 

 the insect way ; on the shore, of small Crustacea and 

 other little livinii things. 



