2 CHARADKllD^. 



down to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Polynesia, South America, and the 

 African region. Mr. Godman believes that the Turnstone breeds in the Azores, 

 and it may possibly do so in the Canaries, while Mr. Tait says that in Portugal it 

 is usually seen near the mouth of the Douro ' from the beginning of April till 

 the middle of September,' adding that in the summer of 1869 a young bird was 

 brought to him alive and kept in a cage for many months ; no eggs have, however, 

 been taken south of the Baltic. On migration the Turnstone is found along the 

 entire coast line of Europe and on many inland waters, and it is generally 

 distributed in North America, breeding in the Arctic regions; but S. melanocephalus, 

 a second member of this small genus, is also found in Alaska and California." 



The late Dr. Saxby stated that he discovered the eggs of the Turnstone on the 

 shores of Uust, Shetland Islands. Although some doubt has been thrown upon his 

 connect identification of the eggs *, his description of the habits of this species and 

 of his discovery of the eggs is so interesting, that it is here reproduced iu full f : — 

 " The Turnstone arrives regularly in summer, and again in March or April, a few 

 remaining throughout the winter. More than half a dozen are seldom observed 

 together, but upon rare occasions I have seen as many as twenty or thirty. When 

 Turnstones are in company with other species they are not very difficult to approach, 

 but having been once fixed at, they Avill remain shy for weeks afterwards. On being 

 disturbed, they nearly always utter their loud peculiar cry, which, by the way, it is 

 not quite impossible to imitate by unscrewing the tight-fitting lid of an old- 

 fashioned ' powder-pufi" box ' — and they invariably fly seawards, seldom alighting 

 until they have several times passed and repassed the selected spot. AA'hen 

 wounded, they swim with the greatest ease, and will even take to the water 

 voluntarily when closely pursued, but I have never yet seen one attempt to dive. 

 It is a matter of surj^rise that so careful an observer as Macgillivray should have 

 regarded 'their alleged stone-turning habits as a fable.' I have watched these birds 

 for hours at a time, and besides witnessing the act repeatedly, have afterwards 

 visited the ground, where the displacement of stones and shells, and even the 

 completely reversed position of some, has been quite sufficient to prove the existence 

 of the habit in question. Such traces are of course most readily observed upon a 

 sandy beach where the stones are few and scattered; but, indeed, it is chiefly 

 among sea-weed that this peculiar method of searching for food is employed, the 



* Mr. H. E. Dresser, for example, remarks with reference to Dr. Saxby's discovery : — "But he 

 does not appear to have had any authentic eggs of that species [Turnstone] to compare them with, 

 as he compares them with the plate in Mr. Hewitson's well-known work on oology " (' History of the 

 Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 558). 



t ' Birds of Shetland,' pp. 170-172. 



