TURN STONE. 147 



and domesticated, is said to retain the same habit. * Its bill 

 seems particularly well constructed for this purpose, differing 

 from all the rest of its tribe, and very much resembling, in shape, 

 that of the common Nuthatch. We learn from Mr. Pennant, 

 that these birds inhabit Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and the arc- 

 tic flats of Siberia, where they breed, wandering southerly in 

 autumn. It is said to build on the ground, and to lay four eggs, 

 of an olive colour spotted with black; and to inhabit the isles of 

 the Baltic during summer. 



The Turn-stone flies with a loud twittering note, and runs 

 with its wings lowered; but not with the rapidity of others of its 

 tribe. It examines more completely the same spot of ground , 

 and, like some of the Woodpeckers, will remain searching in the 

 same place, tossing the stones and pebbles from side to side for 

 a considerable time. 



These birds vary greatly in colour, scarcely two individuals 

 are to be found alike in markings. These varieties are most 

 numerous in autumn, when the young birds are about, and are 

 less frequently met with in spring. The most perfect specimens 

 I have examined are as follows: 



Length eight inches and a half, extent seventeen inches; bill 

 blackish horn; frontlet, space passing through the eyes, and 

 thence dropping down, and joining the under mandible, black, 

 enclosing a spot of white. Crown white, streaked with black; 

 breast black, whence it turns up half across the neck; behind 

 the eye a spot of black; upper part of the neck white, running 

 down and skirting the black breast, as far as the shoulder; up- 

 per part of the back black, divided by a strip of bright ferrugi- 

 nous; scapulars black, glossed with greenish, and interspersed 

 with rusty red; whole back below this pure white, but hid by 

 the scapulars; rump black; tail-coverts white; tail rounded, white 

 at the base half, thence black to the extremity; belly and vent 

 white; wings dark dusky, crossed by two bands of white; lower 

 half of the lesser coverts ferruginous; legs and feet a bright ver- 



* Cutesby. 



