THE TURNSTONE. 267 



previously; they kept by themselves, even when grouped on the 

 sands beside flocks of dunlins, also in breeding plumage, and 

 formed an agreeable and attractive sight as they wheeled in 

 their flight after rising, and dashed rapidly past within a few feet 

 of where I stood. These flocks are seen every year in the same 

 haunts, and are absent only about five or six weeks. It is difficult 

 to trace their movements after quitting the Hebrides. Professor 

 Newton, in his account of the birds of Iceland, states that they 

 arrive in that country in April and May; Sir John Richardson 

 gives June as the date of their arrival at their breeding quarters 

 on the shores of Hudson's Bay; and Mr Hewitson says that on the 

 coast of Norway they incubate about the middle of that month. 

 But, looking to the lateness of their departure from the Outer 

 Hebrides, and the early date of their return, I incline now to the 

 belief that limited numbers will yet be found nesting on the 

 Haskar rocks, the St. Kilda group, and probably the Monach isles, 

 localities somewhat difficult of access, but well worth the attention 

 of ornithologists desirous of clearing up some features in the history 

 of our shore birds that are at present imperfectly known. 



Mr Elwes informs me that the Turnstone is very common in 

 Islay in the winter season as many as forty or fifty birds being 

 seen in a flock there. Coming nearer the mainland it is found in 

 equal numbers congregated on the shores of many of the islands 

 in the Firth of Clyde. On some parts of Bute it was seen in flocks 

 in the second week of May, 1868, still in the winter plumage; and 

 on the 1st June of the same year a specimen, only slightly marked 

 with red spots, was shot by a correspondent in North Uist, showing 

 a tardiness to complete the summer dress somewhat unusual. 

 Very beautifully marked Turnstones have been shot on a rocky 

 skerry near Ardrossan as late as the middle of May regularly for 

 some years past by Mr Oliver Eaton, bird-stuffer, Kilmarnock, in 

 whose collection I lately saw some very fine specimens. I have 

 often discovered small flocks of this interesting bird on the 

 sandy bays of the shores of East Lothian and Berwickshire beside 

 stranded fish and other dead animals, which I imagined they had 

 managed to turn over with the object of feeding on the sand- 

 hoppers and other crustaceans lying in concealment beneath the 

 carcase. I have, however, never seen the birds in the act of under- 

 mining or pushing over these objects. I cannot recollect an instance 

 of meeting with the Turnstone away from the beach; but Mr 



