THE TURNSTONE. *7 



Thougli round-winged and being blunt-winged generally means that the bird 

 is not a very far, or rapid traveller the Lapwing is a bird of powerful flight, 

 moving faster through the air than it seems to be doing. As well as when the 

 nest appears to be threatened, Lapwings seem to be generally addicted to aerial 

 antics, especially the males during the breeding season ; the way in which they 

 absolutely fling themselves about in the air at this period, without any apparent 

 reason, is probably a means of commending themselves to the attention of the 

 females, like the drumming of the Snipe. In some parts of the kingdom, Lap- 

 wings are netted in considerable numbers for the market ; they are an excellent 

 bird for the table, though hardly equal to the Golden Plover when fresh from the 

 inland hills. 



Family CHARADRIIDsE. 



TURNSTONE. 



Strepsilas interpres, 



THE Turnstone gets its name, and the generic one of Strepsilas, as also its 

 local name in nearly every European language, from a characteristic habit 

 to be mentioned later. Why Linnaeus called it "interpret" it is difficult to divine; 

 but a somewhat far-fetched explanation is given in the B. O. U. List of British 

 Birds, viz: " interpret" =" explainer," i.e., " warner," of other birds. This name 

 might be with justice applied to the Redshank, Curlew, or Peewit, (but even then 

 interpres is not the word that would naturally be used) ; to the Turnstone, which 

 is tame and silent, it is quite inapplicable. 



The Turnstone is a circumpolar bird, breeding in the colder parts of the 

 Arctic New and Old Worlds, and migrating southwards as far as 30 S. It has 

 been ascertained to breed in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Kolguiev, Novaya 

 Zemlya, and on the Arctic coast of Europe, Asia and N. America. In Great 

 Britain and the Faeroes positive evidence of its having done so is wanting, but it 



