TUR NSTONE — O YSTER- CA TCHER 



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Turnstone. 



The tumstones take their name from the fact that they obtain 

 their food in great part by turning over shells and stones, and thus 

 capturing the small worms and molluscs which live beneath. Wherever the shore 

 has grassy patches adjoining sandy pools and banks of pebbles, the European 

 species (Strepsilas interpres) may be seen, either in families or solitary. Its 

 breeding-area includes the north of Europe, Asia, and America, and in Europe 

 extends as far south as the shores of the North Sea and Baltic. In August and 

 September the turnstone starts on its migrations, which take it over almost all of 

 the Southern Hemisphere, and in April and May it returns to its breeding-places. 



OYSTER-CATCHER. 



Oyster-catcher. 



The nest is a mere depression in the beach, lined with a few hairs and sheltered 

 by low scrub or a tussock of grass. In this the female lays her four greenish grey 

 eggs, which are not unlike those of the snipe. 



The oyster-catchers are easily recognisable by the long solid 

 beak, slightly bent upwards, which is about double the length of the 

 head and so much compressed at the sides that towards the end it resembles the 

 blade of a knife with a rounded point. This peculiar type of beak is employed 

 for prising open the shells of bivalves, as well as for thrusting into those of whelks 

 and drawing out the soft bodies of the molluscs on which these birds chiefly subsist. 

 Their diet includes worms and molluscs, as well as the shoots of maritime plants. 

 Pebbly or rocky shores with patches of vegetation are the usual haunts of the 

 European species (Hcematopus ostralegus), whose breeding-area extends from the 



