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TURNSTONE. 
STREPSILAS INTERPRES, ILLIGER. 
PLATE CCCIV. Apbutt 1n SUMMER anD WINTER. 
Turis bird, which, in its full vernal dress, is one of the most beauti- 
ful of its family, is found along the southern coasts of the United 
States during winter, from North Carolina to the mouth of the Sabine 
River, in considerable numbers, although perhaps as many travel at 
that season into Texas and Mexico, where I observed it on its journey 
eastward, from the beginning of April to the end of May 1837. I pro- 
cured many specimens in the course of my rambles along the shores of 
the Florida Keys, and in the neighbourhood of St Augustine, and have 
met with it in May and June, as well as in September and October, in 
almost every part of our maritime shores, from Maine to Maryland. 
On the coast of Labrador I looked for it in vain, although Dr Ricx- 
ARDSON mentions their arrival at their breeding quarters on the shores 
of Hudson’s Bay and the Arctic Sea up to the seventy-fifth parallel. 
In spring the Turnstone is rarely met with in flocks exceeding five 
or six individuals, but often associates with other species, such as the 
Knot, the Red-backed Sandpiper, and the Tringa subarquata. To- 
wards the end of autumn, however, they collect into large flocks, 
and so continue during the winter. I have never seen it on the 
margins of rivers or lakes, but always on the shores of the sea, 
although it prefers those of the extensive inlets so numerous on 
our coasts. At times it rambles to considerable distances from the 
beach, for I have found it on rocky islands thirty miles from the main- 
land ; and on two occasions, whilst crossing the Atlantic, I saw several 
flocks near the Great Banks flying swiftly, and rather close to the water 
around the ships, after which they shot off toward the south-west, and 
in a few minutes were out of sight. It seems to be a hardy bird, for 
some of them remain in our Eastern Districts until severe frost pre- 
vails. Having seen some, in the beginning of June, and in superb 
plumage, on the high grounds of the Island of Grand Mannan, in the 
Bay of Fundy, I supposed that they bred there, although none of my 
party succeeded in discovering their nests. Indeed the young, as I 
