396 CHARADRID^E. 



It is a bird of elegant form and beautiful party-coloured 

 plumage, active in its habits, a nimble runner, and an in- 

 defatigable hunter after food. In size it is intermediate 

 between the Grey Plover and Sanderling, being about as 

 big as a Thrush. The former of these birds it resembles 

 in its disposition to feed in company with birds of different 

 species, and its impatience of the approach of man. For 

 this latter reason it does not often happen that any one can 



THE TURNSTONE, 



get near enough to these birds to watch their manoeuvres 

 while engaged in the occupation from which they have 

 derived their name, though their industry is often apparent 

 from the number of pebbles and shells found dislodged 

 from their socket on the sands where a family has been 

 feeding. Audubon, who had the good fortune to fall in 

 with a party on a retired sea-coast, where, owing to the 

 rare appearance of human beings, they were less fearful 



