488 CHAEADRIID^E. 



its nest was there. We remained in the boat a short time, 

 until we had watched it behind a tuft of grass, near which, 

 after a minute search, we succeeded in finding the nest in a 

 situation in which I should never have expected to meet 

 with a bird of this sort breeding ; it was placed against a 

 ledge of the rock, and consisted of nothing more than the 

 dropping leaves of the juniper bush, under a creeping 

 branch of which the eggs, four in number, were snugly con- 

 cealed, and admirably sheltered from the many storms by 

 which these bleak and exposed rocks are visited, allowing 

 just sufficient room for the bird to cover them. We after- 

 wards found several more nests with little difficulty. All 

 the nests contained four eggs each. The time of breeding 

 is about the middle of June. The eggs measure one inch 

 seven lines in length, by one inch two lines in breadth, of 

 an olive green colour, spotted and streaked with ash blue 

 and two shades of reddish brown." 



The Turnstone inhabits the shores and islands of the 

 Baltic, and was also one of the birds found by M. Von 

 Baer at Nova Zembla. During the various northern 

 expeditions from this country, these birds were seen at 

 Greenland, on Winter Island, at Felix Harbour, and along 

 the coast between Victoria Harbour and Fury Point, about 

 the middle and towards the end of June. I have seen 

 specimens of old and young birds from Iceland ; and Dr. 

 Richardson says, " This species reaches its breeding-quarters 

 on the shores of Hudson's Bay, and of the Arctic Sea, up 

 to the seventy-fifth parallel, in June, and quits them again 

 in the beginning of September. It halts in October on the 

 shores of the Delaware, but proceeds farther south when 

 the cold weather sets in." 



The Turnstone is well known to the ornithologists of the 

 United States ; and interesting accounts of its habits will 



