TURNSTONE. 33 
Turnstones being engaged in searching for food in precisely the same 
manner. At other times, and especially when in the neighbourhood of 
St Augustine, in East Florida, I used to amuse myself with watching 
these birds on the racoon-oyster banks, using my glass for the purpose. 
I observed that they would search for such oysters as had been killed 
by the heat of the sun, and pick out their flesh precisely in the man- 
ner of our Common Oyster-catcher, Hamatopus palliatus, while they 
would strike at such small bivalves as had thin shells, and break them, 
as I afterwards ascertained, by walking to the spot. While on the 
Florida coast, near Cape Sable, I shot one in the month of May, that 
had its stomach filled with those beautiful shells, which, on account of 
their resemblance to grains of rice, are commonly named rice-shells. 
I have always looked upon the Turnstone, while at its avocations, 
as a species very nearly allied to the Oyster-catcher ; and, although it 
certainly differs in some particulars, were I to place it in a position 
determined by its affinities, I should remove it at once from the Tringa 
family. Its mode of searching for food around pebbles and other ob- 
jects, the comparative strength of its legs, its retiring disposition, and 
its loud whistling notes while on wing, will, I think, prove at some 
period that what I have ventured to advance may be in accordance 
with the only true system, by which I mean Nature’s own system, 
could one be so fortunate as to understand it. 
While this species remains in the United States, although its resi- 
dence is protracted to many months, very few individuals are met with 
in as complete plumage as the one represented in my plate with the 
wings fully extended; for out of a vast number of specimens procured 
from the beginning of March to the end of May, or from August to 
May, I have scarcely found two to correspond precisely in their markings. 
For this reason, no doubt exists in my mind that this species, as well 
as the Knot and several others, loses its rich summer plumage soon 
after the breeding season, when the oldest become scarcely distinguish- 
able from the young. In the spring months, however, I have observed 
that they gradually improve in beauty, and acquire full-coloured fea- 
thers in patches on the upper and lower surfaces of the body, in the 
_same manner as the Knot, the Red-breasted Snipe, the Godwits, and 
several other species. According to Mr Hewitson, the eggs are four in 
number, rather suddenly pointed towards the smaller end, generally an 
inch and four and a half eighths in length, an inch and one and a half 
VOL, IV. c 
