PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 389 



are normally three in number, sometimes only two, and occasionally four, and are 

 placed irregularly in the nest, often not touching one another, and not neatly 

 arranged like the eggs of the plovers. In colour they are yellowish stone or ochreous, 

 boldly marked with blackish brown spots, streaks and scrawls, which at times form 

 a zone, and underlying ashy shellmarks. Some eggs have a warm rufous tinge, 

 and a rare type has a greenish blue ground. (PL K.) Average size of 65 eggs, 

 2-22x1 -54 in. [56'2x39'9 mm.]. The duties of incubation are shared by both 

 parents, though the hen is more frequently to be found sitting, with the male keeping 

 watch not far away. Messrs. Meade- Waldo and E. W. Wade estimate the period at 

 26-27 days, which is probably correct, although Colonel Duthie places it rather 

 lower (23-24 days). Naumann's estimate (up to three weeks) is, as with the other 

 Waders, too low. In southern localities eggs may be found towards the end of 

 April, but the more usual time is in the first half of May in the British Isles, though 

 in the north of Europe not till June. Only one brood is normally reared in the 

 season, but a second or third clutch of eggs is laid if the first is destroyed, so that 

 fresh eggs may be found up to the end of June or even in early July. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Mussels, limpets, and many other molluscs, both bivalves and 

 univalves ; shore-worms of various kinds, and earth-worms. Crustaceans such as 

 crabs, etc., and small fish and seaweed. Dresser, quoting Thompson, describes the 

 contents of eight stomachs as consisting chiefly of the opercula of whelks and 

 other univalves. One stomach contained 50 opercula of whelks, about 25 good-sized 

 limpets without shells and a Holothuria. In another was found a quantity of 

 vegetable matter, tender roots and green leaves, also " small white worm-like larvae " 

 (Birds of Europe, vii. p. 572). The stomachs of first-year birds containing mussels 

 without the shells, prove that oystercatchers can open the shells before their bills 

 have attained their full development (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 249). The young 

 feed chiefly on insects and their larvae, and probably small soft-skinned shore and 

 marine creatures. They are attended by both parents, and assisted by them in 

 their search for food. [w. F.] 



TURNSTONE [Arendria interpres (Linnaeus) ; Strepsilas interpres (Linnaeus). 

 Little-pyot ; tangle-picker (Norfolk) ; brackett (Northumberland) ; stane- 

 pecker (Shetlands). French, tourne-pierre ; German, Halsoand-Steinwalzer ; 

 Italian, voltapietre]. 



i. Description. The turnstone may readily be distinguished by the pointed, 



