PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 391 



young in down has the upper parts pale grey, mottled with darker grey, the under 

 parts white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Although the tumstone has not been definitely proved to 

 breed in the British Isles, there is good reason to believe that it has nested in the 

 Shetlands on at least one occasion (see Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 171). It has also 

 been seen in pairs during the summer on various parts of the west coast of Great 

 Britain, but is chiefly known as a passage migrant. Outside the British Isles it 

 breeds in Iceland, and probably on the Fseroes ; on Lseso in the Cattegat and Salt- 

 holm ; while it also nests in small numbers off the coast of Schleswig, Pomerania, and 

 on Riigen ; in the gulfs of Riga, Finland, and Bothnia, and both coasts of Scandinavia, 

 along the coast of North Russia, on Kolguev and Novaya Zemlya. Buturlin also 

 states that it breeds in the Crimea and on the Kirghiz Steppes. In Asia it ranges 

 along the Siberian coast and to the New Siberian Isles, and in the New World is 

 found in Greenland, but is replaced by a rather dubious allied form in Arctic North 

 America. On migration its range is practically cosmopolitan, and it occurs in 

 winter not only in the Mediterranean region and the Atlantic Isles, but south to 

 Cape Colony in Africa ; in Asia it is recorded from the shores of the Indian Ocean 

 east to the Malay Peninsula, China, and Japan ; it is also found in most islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago, and has wandered to Australia and New Zealand, the Fiji and 

 Sandwich Isles, New Hebrides, etc., while American birds range south to Patagonia. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A bird of passage and a winter visitor, presumably from 

 Northern Europe. It is chiefly at the migration seasons that the turnstone is 

 found on the British coasts, but a small number remain during the winter months. 

 Occasional individuals or pairs are met with in summer, but the species has never 

 been proved to breed within our area. A gregarious migrant. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nesting-sites used by this species are very variable. 

 The Godmans found that they were cunningly hidden, but that the birds showed 

 no preference for any particular locality. One nest was on a ledge of rock, another 

 in open sand, two were among grass, and a fifth well concealed by weeds and 

 grass under a ledge of rock. Pearson found several nests a few paces from high- 

 water mark, and in nearly all cases within 50 yards of it, on islets, under flat 

 stones, in patches of dwarf sallow, in grass tussocks, on shelves of peat, and in 

 one case 18 inches down a puffin-burrow. In Greenland, Kolguev, and Iceland, 

 however, it has been found breeding far inland. The only materials used are a 

 few bents or sorrel stalks, but the share of the parents in building has apparently 



