THE TURN-STONES. 179 



north in May. The return journey lasts from the end of July 

 to the end of September. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Turn-stone may be re- 

 garded as a circum-polar bird, for it breeds in the high north 

 of both hemispheres, and wanders south in winter to the Cape 

 of Good Hope, India and Ceylon, Australia, and the extreme 

 south of South America. It has even been supposed to nest 

 in some of its southern homes, as birds have been procured in 

 full breeding plumage in the Azores, and in other places in 

 May, but these are probably non-breeding birds, which remain 

 in their southern homes during the whole of the summer. It 

 nests regularly in Denmark and in Scandinavia, and on the 

 Baltic coasts. 



Habits. This handsome little Plover is by no means shy, 

 and, in autumn, the young birds may be approached within easy 

 distance of observation. I have often seen them at this latter 

 period of the year resting, at full tide, on the green herbage 

 just beyond the high-water mark in some of our southern 

 harbours. When sitting on the shingle, however, their 

 plumage so completely harmonises with the surrounding stones 

 that they are not discovered until they fly up, with a sharp 

 note. It is essentially a bird of the sea-coasts, and is very 

 seldom seen inland, although it is said to move across country 

 in its migrations. Its name of Turn-stone is derived from its 

 curious habit of turning over pebbles to look for the insects 

 underneath, and Colonel Feilden has in his possession a slab of 

 stone several inches square which he saw turned over by one 

 of these birds. Edward, the BanfTshire naturalist, noticed 

 three of them engaged upon moving the body of a fish, which, 

 as they could not overturn it, they undermined, and were 

 then enabled to reach the insects which were underneath 

 the body. Mr. E. W. Nelson also says that the species feeds 

 upon the larvae of the insects which are found upon the tens 

 of thousands of seal carcases strewn about the Seal Islands 

 in N.W. America. The call-note of the Turn-stone, writes 

 Mr. Seebohm, is a clear, loud, shrill whistle, bearing some re- 

 semblance to the call-notes of the Golden and Grey Plovers, 

 which may be represented by the syllable ko or keet. It has 

 also a double note, which may be represented by the syllable 



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