TURNSTONE. 159 



Immature. Much browner and paler with dull greyish-pink feet and horn 

 -coloured bill, the feathers of the back with pale tips. 



Nestling in down. Sooty -brown with white tips on the upper-parts ; head 

 black as also two longitudinal lines on the back. 



Nest. A depression in the earth. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; very similar to the eggs of the preceding but the ground- 

 colour seems darker ; axis 65 mm., diameter 44. 



Breeding -season. August to January. 



Distribution and forms. Confined to Australia and New Zealand. Four 

 subspecies are easily recognisable : H. u. unicolor Forster from New Zealand ; H. u. 

 fuliginosus Gould from South-east Australia, with a shorter, more rounded bill 

 anterior to the nostrils ; H. u. bernieri Mathews, from South-west Australia, with 

 a browner coloration, smaller wing but longer legs ; as typical, wing 297, tarsus 51, 

 against wing, 282 tarsus 56 ; and H. u. opthalmicus Castelnau and Ramsay from 

 Northern Australia, of smaller size but with a remarkable bare space round the eye. 



FAMILY ARENARIID^E. 



This family containing only two species both breeding in the northern 

 hemisphere and one migrating almost to the Antarctic in winter. The superficial 

 features are peculiar, a conical bill with no differentiated dertrum, and a well -developed 

 hind-toe, with a strong Plover-like appearance. The bill of the nestling when hatched 

 is Pluvialine but in a few days it takes on the adult appearance, thus indicating the 

 Pluvialine descent. The tarsus is quite peculiar, being transversely scuted in front 

 and behind. No detailed examination of the osteology or anatomy appears to have 

 been made, the leg muscle formula being AXY-J-. By some writers the American 

 genus Aphriza was included owing to the presence of the hind -toe, but the bill is 

 typically Pluvialine and the tarsal covering different. Ridgway has recently allowed 

 a family Aphrizidse for this genus alone, but upon insufficient grounds, as he stresses 

 the presence of the hind-toe, though including the Vanelline forms in his Charadriidse. 

 We cannot see any reason for separating Aphriza from the Charadriidse as here 

 restricted. 



Genus ARENARIA. 



Arenaria Brisson, Ornith., Vol. I., p. 48, Vol. V., p. 132, 1760. Type (by tautonymy) : 



Arenaria = T ring a inter pres Linne. 



Morinella Meyer und Wolf, Taschenb. d. Vogel, pt. n., p. 383, note, (pref. March) 1810. Type 



(by monotypy) : M . collaris Meyer und Wolf = Tringa inter pres Linnet 



Strepsilas Illiger, Prodr. Mamm. et Av., p. 263, (pref. April) 1811. Type (by monotypy) : 



T. inter pres Linne. 



Cinclus Gray, List Gen. Birds, 2nd ed., p. 85, Sept. 1841. Type (by original designation) : 



T. inter pres Linne. 



Not of Borkhausen, Deutsch. Fauna, Vol. I , p. 300, 1797. 



Small Wading birds with short straight bill, long wings, and short and stout 

 legs and feet. The bill is distinctive, being somewhat conical, almost straight 

 or very slightly upturned, the culmen flattened. The nostrils are linear, situated 

 near the base of the culmen, in a groove which extends nearly half the length of the 

 bill. The wings are long and pointed, the first primary longest. The metatarsus, 

 just exceeding the culmen in length, is transversely scutellated in front, reticulated 

 behind. Hind -toe well developed, the toes not connected or webbed at all. 



in. Arenaria in terpres. TURNSTONE. 



[Tringa interpres Linne, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p 148, Jan. 1st, 1758 : Europe. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 39 (pt. xxxiv.), Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 1, pi. 125, April 

 2nd, 1913. 



