118 PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



they wandered along the beach. They were the noisiest of all the feathered tribe fre- 

 quenting the island, and their harsh and vociferons cries were heard all the day long. 

 After some search he succeeded in iinding two nests. One, containing a single fresh- 

 laid egg, was found, June 6, on the extreme point of a high cliif jutting over the sea ; 

 the second, obtained a few days later, was on a small islet. The nests were rude 

 affairs, being slight hollows in the pebbly detritus, with bits of stone brought from 

 elsewhere. There was no grass or any lining softer than the stones themselves. 

 In one case the two eggs had been incubated, and were probably all that would 

 have been laid. The eggs were uudistinguishable from those of the j^attiatiis. Their 

 grovmd-color was a faint grayish drab, pi-ofusely marked with irregular blotches of 

 black. They measured 2.27 by 1.59, 2.29 by 1.48, and 2.18 by 1.52 inches. 



Eggs of this species obtained by Mr. HepbiTrn on Puget Sound average 2.17 by 

 1.55 inclies. Their ground-color is a liglit olivaceous drab, spotted with rounded 

 markings distributed in a general, but scattered, manner over the entire egg. These 

 spots are of a dark bistre, almost black ; and these eggs differ greatly from those of 

 the paUiutus. From the different aspects presented by the eggs procured by Mr. 

 Hepburn and Mr. Henshaw, it would seem tliat the eggs of this species must vary, 

 and that while some closely resemble tliose of the eastern sjjecies, others are quite 

 diiferent. 



Family STEEPSILID.^. — The Turnstones. 



Slrepsiliiue, " G. K. Gray, 1840." 



SirepsUidcc, RiDOW. Bull. Ills. State Laborat. Nat. Hist.no. 4, May, 1881, p. 194. 



CiHclinfx, "G. R. Gray, 1841 ;" HauiU. III. 1871, •2i. 



Ch.vr. Pi-ather small, Plover-like birds, differing from the true Plovers (Clwra- 

 driidw) chieily in tlie more robust feet, without trace of web between the toes, 

 the well-developed hind toe, and the strong claws ; the toes with a lateral mar- 

 gin, forming a broad flat under surface (especially in Aphriza) ; the bill of one 

 genus {Strrpdlas) peculiar. The two genera may be distinguished by tlie following 

 characters : — 



Strepsilas. Bill compressed and pointed terminally, somewhat upturned at the end, the culmen 

 straight or even slightly concave ; tarsus not longer than the bill ; tail slightly rounded. 



Apbriza. Bill slightly swollen terminally, the terminal portion of the culmen decidedly convex ; 

 tarsus decidedly longer than the bill ; tail slightly emarginated. 



Genus STREPSILAS, Illiger. 



Morinella, Meyer & Wolf, Tasebb. Viig. Deutscbl. II. 1810, 383 (type, Tringa intcrprcs, Linn.). 

 Strepsilas, Illigee, Prodromus, 1811 (same type). 



Char. Form robust, thi- head small, neck short, wings long and pointed, feet stout. Bill 

 straight along the culmen (or else slightly concave above), somewhat upturned terminally, com- 

 pressed toward the end and pointed. Wings reaching beyond the tail, the fust primary longest, 

 the tertials not reaching to end of the primaries. Tail slightly rounded. Tarsus decidedly longer 

 than the middle toe, the latter shorter than the bill. 



The two species of this genus, both of which are American (one of them exclusively so), may 

 be distinguished as follows : — 



