408 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE 



five hundred feet. He found them also in Kolguev and Novaya 

 Zemlya some distance inland and on high ground. 1 In North-east 

 Greenland, Herr Manniche found this species "nesting very 

 commonly almost everywhere," generally on dry, stony, sparsely 

 covered table-lands and moors, both far inland and also near the 

 sea, but never on the smaller islands, although these were visited 

 occasionally by the birds. A decided preference was shown for 

 localities " near an inundated tract, a bog, or fresh-water pond," to 

 which the birds often led their young ones. 2 



An interesting observation by Herr Manniche is to the effect 

 that in N.E. Greenland all the Waders were very regular in their 

 arrival. The turnstones all arrived on the "same day and hour" ; on 

 May 28th and June 2nd respectively of the two summers he was there. 

 He states that for a short time after their arrival they feed chiefly 

 on vegetable food, but he saw them also turning over stones and 

 searching for larvae and pupse of insects. Incubation is shared fairly 

 by male and female, the brooding spot being equally developed in 

 both sexes. 3 Buffon's skua, which is very numerous in Greenland, 

 is, according to Manniche, "a detested enemy of the turnstone." 

 Other Waders share the turnstone's dislike for this handsome 

 skua, but none show such pertinacity in attacking and mobbing 

 it. Whenever a skua appeared near the nesting-grounds it was 

 immediately pursued by first one and then another of the enraged 

 little birds. Whilst one of a pair brooded the eggs or tended 

 the chicks, the other stood on guard on the summit of a large 

 rock, and as soon as it recognised the skua from afar, rushed 

 " towards him uttering furious cries." The polar-fox was received 

 in the same way. Although the male turnstone takes his share in 

 hatching the eggs, and assists in guarding and tending the chicks 

 while very young, he leaves them to the female long before 

 they can fly, and joins the flocks of male sanderlings and knots, 



1 British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 89. 



2 A. L. V. Manniche, The Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. Greenland, pp. 127-8. 



3 See also British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 88. 



