STEEPSILAS. 



411 



Plates.— Daub. PI. Ent. nos. 856, 857 ; Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi, 50 ; Dresser, Birds of Literature. 



EuropCj vii. pi. 532. 

 Habits. — Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 12. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 24. figs, 1, 3. 



The Common Turnstone may be recognized at all ages and seasons by its pure white Specific 

 chin and throat. From the Surf-bird its white lower back is the best distinction. In characters, 

 breeding- dress the amount of white on the head and the chestnut on the back prevent it 

 from being confounded with 8. melanocephalus. In winter plumage the brown chin and 

 throat of the latter species prevents confusion, but in immature dress the two species 

 resemble each other very closely. The Black-headed Turnstone in immature plumage has 

 the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries narrowly margined with white instead of 

 broadly margined with buff, and the chin and throat are never pure white. 



The Turnstone is almost exclusively a shore-bird, but on migration it is habitually Geographi- 

 seen on many of the inland routes or fly-lines. It is a circumpolar species, breeding on y^^ 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Europe and Asia, as well as in America. There is no 

 doubt that on the Scandinavian coast it breeds as far south as the Danish islands in the 

 Baltic ; and it is said to breed on the Azores, the Canaries, the islands of the Red Sea, the 

 Balearic Islands, Robben Island on the coast of South Africa, the coast of South-west 

 Texas, Lord Howe's Island between Australia and New Zealand, on the island of Jamaica, 

 and in many other localities ; but in none of these alleged instances is the evidence 

 conclusive. It is a winter visitor to almost every coast of the islands or continents south 

 of the Tropic of Cancer. A few winter on the Bernmdas (Reid, Zoologist, 1577, p. 475) ; 

 some on the Galapagos Archipelago (Dr. Habel, Trans. Zoo). Soc. ix. p. 502) ; the 

 ' Challenger ' Expedition obtained it on the Admiralty Islands ; and it has been recorded 

 from every important group of the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, 

 most of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and almost from every part of the coasts of 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, Madagascar, and North and South America. It is not exclusively a 

 shore-bird, but has also occurred in Central Africa and Central Asia. Probably no other 

 bird is so completely cosmopolitan in its range. 



STREPSILAS MELANOCEPHALUS. 



BLACK TURNSTONE. 



Strepsilas mento gulaque aut nigris (aest.), aut albis fusco striatis (hiera.) : dorso postico albo. Diagnosis. 



3g2 



