OI ey a Ne 
105 
A small Plover well called meloda. It is asand-beach bird and never 
seen in grassy or marshy stituations. Some individuals have broken and 
others complete black breast-bands. The latter were for some time re- 
garded as a subspecies but now all are included under the one form. The 
Snowy Plover, Hgialitis nivosa, has been taken on lake Ontario, but is probably 
not to be expected again. It is slightly smaller than the Piping, of same 
general coloration but with a dark aural or cheek patch, and only a spot 
of dark at the sides of the breast instead of a complete bar across it. A more 
southern and western bird and can only occur as a straggler. 
FAMILY—APHRIZIDH. TURNSTONES. 
General Descripijon. Medium-sized Shore Birds with bill (Figure 27, p. 22) moder- 
ately short, horny for the terminal half, tip slightly flattened (in a horizontal plane) but 
not distinctly enlarged as in the Piover. 
A small family of world-wide distribution. Only one species of this 
family in eastern Canada. 
283a. Turnstone. RUDDY TURNSTONE. AMERICAN TURNSTONE. CARRIQUET PLOKWER 
CALICO PLOVER. FR.—LA TOURNE-PIERRE A POITRINE NOIRE. TOURNE PIERRE. Aren- 
aria interpres. L, 9-50. 
Distinctions. A strikingly coloured bird. Back in rather broad masses of dull red, 
black, and white more or less intermixed. Rump and head white, the crown striped with 
brown or black. Underparts pure white, with black breast-band, extending up side of neck 
to face where it makes a circle through the eye and around a white loral spot. Autumn 
birds have the colours subdued and the back coloration lost or only faintly represented, 
but enough of the face and breast markings always remain to suggest the above diagnosis. 
Field Marks. The peculiar pied coloration in red, black, and white of the spring 
plumage. In the autumn the white lower back and upper tail coverts separated by a dark 
bar. 
Nesting. Depression in the ground lined with a few dead leaves or vegetable fibres. 
Distribution. The Turnstone as a species has one of the widest distributions of any 
bird, there being few countries where it has not occurred. The American subspecies 
representative of the species, the Ruddy Turnstone, breeds from the Arctic coast west of 
Hudson Bay northward, and is more common on the Atlantic than the Pacific coast; 
locally common, in migration, in the Great Lakes region. 
SUBSPECIES. The Turnstone is represented in America by a subspecies, the 
Ruddy Turnstone A. i. morinella, though the typical form is said to occur in western 
Alaska. 
A bird of sandy, muddy, or rocky shores, but preferring the first. 
It is named from its habit of turning over small stones and pebbles on the 
beach searching for food beneath them, and it is astonishing what com- 
paratively large stones it can move. It inserts its bill under the edge, 
gives a little fillip, and away goes the stone rolling or skidding over the 
beach to a considerable distance. It is a comparatively good swimmer. 
It differs from the Old World Turnstone only in slightly smaller size, less 
black on the upperparts, and the stronger coloration of the legs. 
FAMILY—HAMATOPODIDAH. OYSTER CATCHERS. 
General Description. Large Shore Bird more heavily built than is usual in the order; 
bill stout and horny, flattened laterally (sideways) at tip. There is only one species that 
may perhaps occur in eastern Canada. 
286. American Oyster-catcher. H#MATOPUS PALLIATUS. L, 19. Head, neck, 
and upper breast, black; back, olive-brown with contrasting white wing-patch and rump. 
All underparts, pure white; bill, large, bright red. 
Distribution. Atlantic coast north to Virginia. Formerly to New Jersey and acci- 
dental to New Brunswick. Probably bred throughout its range. 
