16 STREPSILAS INTERPRES. 



is generally a soft mud, extremely well suited to their 

 accommodation. Here they are resident, hurving them- 

 selves in the mud during the winter; hut, early in the 

 mouth of May, they approach the shore in multitudes, 

 to obey the great law of nature, in depositing their 

 c>.r,rs within the influence of the sun, and are then very 

 troublesome to the fishermen, who can scarcely draw ;i 

 seine for them, they are so numerous. Being of slow 

 motion, and easily overset by the surf, their dead bodies 

 cover the shore in heaps, and in such numbers, that for 

 ten miles one might walk on them without touching 

 the ground. 



The hogs from the neighbouring country are regu- 

 larly driven down, every spring, to feed on them, which 

 they do with great avidity ; though by this kind of food 

 their flesh acquires a strong disagreeable fishy ta-te. 

 Even the small turtles, or terrapins, so eagerly sought 

 after by our epicures, contract so rank a taste by feeding 

 on the spawn of the king crab, as to be at such times 

 altogether unpalatable. This spawn may sometimes 

 be seen lying in hollows and eddies in bushels, while 

 the snipes and sandpipers, particularly the turnstone, 

 are hovering about feasting on the delicious fare. The 

 dead bodies of the animals themselves are hauled up 

 in wagons for manure, and when placed at the hillg 

 of corn, in planting time, are said to enrich the soil, 

 and add greatly to the increase of the crop. 



The turnstone derives its name from another singu- 

 larity it possesses, of turning over Avith its bill small 

 stones and pebbles, in search of various marine worms 

 and insects. At this sort of work it is exceedingly 

 dexterous; and, even when taken and domesticated, is 

 said to retain the same habit.* Its bill seems particu- 

 larly 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 arctic flats of Siberia, where they 



CATBSBT. 



