398 CHARADRID^E. 



clinging to its surface, when our attention was attracted 

 by the singular cry of a Turnstone, which in its eager 

 watch had seen our approach, and perched itself upon an 

 eminence of the rock, assuring us, by its querulous oft- 

 repeated note and anxious motions, that its nest was there. 

 We remained in the boat a short time, until we had 

 watched it behind a tuft of grass, near which, after a 

 minute search, we succeeded in finding the nest in a situa- 

 tion in which I should never have expected to meet a bird 

 of this sort breeding ; it was placed against a ledge of the 

 rock, and consisted of nothing more than the dropping 

 leaves of the juniper bush, under a creeping branch of 

 which the eggs, four in number, were snugly concealed, 

 and admirably sheltered from the many storms by which 

 these bleak and exposed rocks are visited. The Turnstone 

 has not been known to breed in Great Britain. 



THE SANDERLING. 



CALIDRIS ARENARIA. 



Winter Upper plumage and sides of the neck whitish ash ; cheeks and all the 

 under plumage, pure white ; bend and edge of the wing and quills blackish 

 grey ; tail deep grey, edged with white ; bill, irides, ^nd feet, black. Summer 

 Cheeks and crown black, mottled with rust-red and white ; neck and breast 

 reddish ash with black and white spots ; back and scapulars deep rust-red, 

 spotted with black, all the feathers edged and tipped with white ; wing-coverts 

 dusky, with reddish lines, and tipped with white ; two middle tail-feathers 

 dusky, with reddish edges. Young in autumn Cheeks, head, nape, and back 

 variously mottled with black, brown, grey, rust-red, and dull white. Length 

 eight inches. Eggs olive, spotted and speckled with black. 



SEA-SIDE visitors, if they inquire of boatmen and other 

 people on the shore the names of the birds about the size 

 of swallows, and scarcely less swift, which, united into 

 flocks, fly in sweeping curves along the sand, or over the 

 breakers, now showing their dark upper plumage, and 

 now the snowy feathers on their breasts, will be probably 

 told that they are Stints, or perhaps Sand Larks. These 

 names answer well enough the purpose of sea-side fowlers, 



