290 CHARADRTID^E. 



The habit is not more singular than the species, which 

 belongs to a genus containing only one other member, and 

 is remarkable for the beauty and variety of its plumage. 

 It inhabits the sea- shore, and at times visits the margins of 

 lakes and large rivers, occasionally associating with some of 

 the smaller Plovers, and feeds on the smaller Crustacea, and 

 the soft-bodied animals inhabiting thin shells, turning over 

 stones, and searching among sea-weed for its food : whence 

 its appropriate Norfolk name of ' Tangle-picker '. It is ob- 

 served to dwell longer in one place, if not disturbed, than the 

 Plovers, and utters a loud twittering note when on the wing. 

 By the latter part of July young birds make their appear- 

 ance, but the bulk of the migrants from the north do not 

 arrive until August. On the east coasts of England com- 

 paratively few remain after the autumn, but on the southern 

 coasts, and especially in the mild climate of the west, many 

 stay throughout the winter. By the middle of May the 

 return migration has begun, and birds in breeding-plumage 

 have frequently been observed on our coasts, sometimes in 

 pairs, all through the summer ; nevertheless the breeding of 

 this species in the British Islands, although several times 

 suspected, does not appear to be as yet fully proved. On 

 the 28th May, 1861, a pair rose from a most suitable 

 locality at Lundy Island, and the male unfortunately fell 

 to a hasty shot from the Editor's companion. Mr. T. E. 

 Buckley has seen the bird on the west coast of Harris in 

 July, and believes that it breeds there ; the late Dr. Saxby 

 saw a Turnstone on Unst, the most northern of the 

 Shetlands, on 16th June, and found three eggs which he 

 supposed to belong to it, and in July, 1879, the Editor saw 

 a pair on an islet in the same neighbourhood ; but as yet 

 no authenticated eggs seem to be known from any part of 

 the United Kingdom.* In Scotland the species is more 



* Mr. Harting has one of the eggs stated in Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' 

 to have been taken on the Fame Islands, and attributed to this bird ; but, in 

 the Editor's opinion, it resembles the egg of the Purple Sandpiper more than tbat 

 of the Turnstone, and Mr. Hancock is not cognisant of either species having 

 bred there. 



