TURNSTONE. GRALLATORES. STREPSILAS. 205 



land and on the mainland of Scotland is only known as a 

 winter visitant, should be stationary through the year in a 

 country still farther northward. The peculiarity of climate 

 thus indicated, is in all probability attributable to the small 

 extent of the Shetland Isles, and the great body of water 

 surrounding them, being thus rendered a suitable habitat at 

 all seasons to the constitution and habits of the bird. It 

 lives on the rocky or gravelly shores of the ocean, and is 

 never seen upon the soft and oozy sands, frequented by the 

 Scolopacida ; and is also met with, but less frequently, up- 

 on the larger rivers and lakes of the interior of Continental 

 countries. It is seldom found associated in flocks, being 

 either a few together (probably the brood of the preceding 

 year) or single; and this last is generally the case with 

 adults. It feeds on marine, coleopterous, and other insects, Food, 

 as well as on small bivalve molluscae and crustacese> which it 

 finds by turning over the stones with its bill, an instrument 

 most beautifully adapted for that purpose, being strong, 

 very hard, and drawn to a fine point, and forming altogether 

 a powerful lever. In other respects the manners of the 

 Turnstone resemble those of the Plovers ; and I have fre- 

 quently found it in company with the Ring Dotterel (Cha- 

 radrius Hiaticula), which inhabits similar shores. TEM- 

 MINCK considers this bird as subject to only one moult with- 

 in the year, and that the young probably undergo three of 

 these changes before they acquire the mature plumage. My 

 observations, however, do not accord with this opinion, as I 

 have frequently killed it in spring, when undergoing a 

 change, which I considered as the assumption of what he 

 has appropriately termed the nuptial livery; and at this time 

 also, I think the young birds acquire the plumage described 

 by him as characteristic of their completing the first year. 

 The Turnstone is found upon most of the European shores, 

 but is particularly abundant in Norway, and on the coasts 

 of the Baltic. In Africa it is met with in Senegal, at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and several other parts. Its distribu- 



