88 BRITISH ‘SEA \BIRDS. 
little creature, ever on the run in quest of food. 
It may be watched hunting about the beaches, 
or running amongst pebbles, and over the piles 
of drifted rubbish that the tide washes up in a long 
irregular line along the shore. In watching the 
actions of this bird, the observer cannot fail to 
remark its singular habit of turning over shells 
and other objects, in quest of the small marine 
creatures that lurk under them, with its conical 
shaped beak, and perhaps occasionally with its 
breast as well. This peculiarity has gained for 
the Turnstone its trivial name. Not only does it 
run about the sand and rocks, but it frequently 
wades, and has even been seen to swim just outside 
the line of breakers, rising from time to time, flying 
a little way and then settling upon the water again, 
The flight of this bird is not very rapid, and 
generally taken close to the ground; its note is 
a shrill whistle, resembling the syllable £ee¢. During 
the love season this note is run into a rapid trill. 
The food of the Turnstone is composed of sand- 
worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and other small marine 
animals. 
The Turnstone changes its haunts but little 
during the breeding season. It rears its young 
on the beaches or on rocky islets, placing its nest 
amongst the scanty marine herbage, beneath the 
shelter of a tuft of grass or a little bush. This is 
merely a hollow lined with a few bits of dry grass 
or other vegetation. The four eggs are olive-green 
