SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 243 



the crown and mottled on the nape, and with a heavy- 

 black pattern winding irregularly about face, neck, 

 and upper breast ; remainder of under parts white ; 

 bill black, rather long, and tapering to a sharp 

 point ; legs and feet orange-red. Female : duller. 

 Spring and autumn migrant. 



The Turnstone is a migrant on all our coasts, 

 and sometimes inland, passing northwards in May, 

 and appearing on its return southwards in July, at 

 which season it loiters for some months, some birds 

 remaining throughout the winter on the east of 

 Scotland, in the south and west of England, and on the 

 west coast of Ireland. It joins Ringed Plovers and 

 Dunlins in their search for marine insects and small 

 crustaceans, turning over with its bill the seaweed 

 and stones in order to discover them. It is from 

 this action that the bird has received its local name 

 of Tangle-Picker, and its general one of Turnstone. 

 The black markings about the face and fore-neck 

 lack altogether the more or less rectangular sim- 

 plicity of the black bands of the Ringed and Kentish 

 Plovers, and tlie sharply defined black-and-white 

 pattern exposed on back and wings and tail when 

 the Turnstone takes wing makes it as striking as 

 an Oyster-Catcher. There is no shore-bird of the 

 running kind with plumage so boldly variegated 

 save the Oyster - Catcher, a much larger bird. 

 Further, the bill of the Oyster- Catcher is bright 

 red, blunt, and twice as long as its head, whilst the 

 Turnstone's bill is black, tapering, pointed, and equal 

 to about three-quarters of the length of its head. 

 No other shore-bird habitually turns over stones. 



2 F 



