358 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



This is the American representative of the common turnstone of tlic 

 palearctic region which also reaches Greenland and Alaska. Our species 

 breeds from Hudson bay to the Mackenzie delta and migrates southward to 

 the Gulf States and South America. It is a common transient visitant along 

 the coast of New York arriving in the spring from the ist to the 15th of 

 Ma}', passing northward from the 1st to the loth of June, returning from 

 the 23d of July to the 8th of August, and departing for the South between 

 September 20th and October 5th. In the interior of the State it is much less 

 common than along the coast, but is noted almost every season somewhere 

 in western New York between the 20th of May and the 5th of June. In 

 the fall it is no commoner than in the spring, occasionalh^ appearing in 

 August and September and once on October 6th. On June i, 1895, I 

 witnessed a flight of hundreds of these birds in companv with Whistling 

 plovers, sanderlings and other shore birds on Canandaigua lake in Ontario 

 county. The island bar was overcrowded with thein and it was iinpossible 

 to take a pair of tunistones with the shot-gun without killing a dozen others 

 and a few Black-bellied plovers, and sanderlings and sandpipers at the 

 same time. This was an unusual occurrence and the birds were undoubtedly 

 forced to alight b>' the strong wind which had been blowing for several 

 hours previouslv. On the Gi'eat Lakes they usvialh' occur singly, in pairs, 

 or in small companies. 



The Turnstone, Calico-back, Brant-bird, Horse-foot snipe, Heart -bird, 

 Beach plover, and Sea quail as this species is called, from its habit of rolling 

 over stones in search of the small crustaceans beneath, or from the patch- 

 work appearance of its vipper parts, or from its simultaneous appearance 

 wdth the flight of brant, or from its fondness for the spawn of the horseshoe 

 crab, or from the black heart-shaped marking on the chest, is primarily 

 a beach bird and a maritime species, evidently visiting our inland stations 

 when taking a short route from the Atlantic coast to Hudson bay. 



Family H A.EM ATOPODlrj AE 



Oystcr-catchcrs 



Large; bill twice as long as head, much compressed, sharp edged, trun- 

 cate, contracted above the nostrils; legs stout, reticulate; toes with thickened 



