CHARADEIIDJE. 307 



In Xorth Devon the Lapwing breeds very commonly on the Braunton 

 Burrows, on some marshy fields on the Instow side of the river Taw, and on 

 all the high moory country to the east and west of the county, lumbers 

 frequent Exmoor, and the moors bordering on that forest, throughout the 

 summer. In the winter-time the flocks collect and come down to the 

 marshes, and should the weather be severe they are then found in water- 

 meadows searching for food. After long-continued snows and black 

 frosts numbers perish of starvation, so that frozen Peewits are then to bo 

 seen lying on the ground by the side of the " splashets," where they have 

 made their last feeble efforts to obtain sustenance. In one severe winter 

 several Peewits, together with one or two Golden Plovers, frequented our 

 garden for some time, but would not touch the food we prepared for them, 

 which we put for their notice in various places on the lawn. It was 

 pitiable to see the Peewits running a foot or two on the frozen ground, 

 and then stopping abruptly to listen (as a Thrush does) all in vain for 

 any sound of a worm moving below the hard-bound soil. 



Turnstone. Strepsilas inteiyres (Linn.). 



A passing visitor, met with usually in small parties on the sea- 

 coast, and in the estuaries of our larger rivers in spring and autumn. 

 Only one instance of its occurrence in winter in the south of the county is 

 known to us, though a few remain on the north coast during that season, 

 and, according to Mr. Cecil 8mith, it is a winter visitor to Somerset. 

 Specimens in full breeding-plumage are occasionally obtained late in the 

 spring in South Devon. 



Next to the Purre and the Hinged Plover, the Turnstone is the com- 

 monest and the best known of the smaller birds which frequent the 

 British shores. A lover of the shingly beaches and seaweed-covere 1 

 pebbles, the Turnstone may be noticed with his curious awl-shaped beak, 

 busilv engaged in turning over the small stones and refuse cast up by 

 the tide, in search of the small marine animals concealed beneath. Little 

 parties of five or six, consisting of the old birds and the year's brood, 

 appear on the North Devon shores from the north at the beginning of 

 August, and, on their first arrival, are singularly tame and confiding. We 

 have seen them on the sands at Weston-super-Mare in the very midst of 

 the bathing machines, at the busy hour of the day, when hundreds of 

 people are there assembled either to bathe or to look at the bathers, hardly 

 taking the trouble to run out of the way of tho numerous passers to and 

 fro. When walking on tlio beach at Instow, in North Devon, we have 

 had a little flock tiy struiglit towards us and settle at our feet. Sometimes 

 the Turnstones are found consorting witli Knots and Kinged Plovers, but 

 it is more usual to find them In' themselves. As thoy riso on wing they 

 utter a clear whistle, and liearing this we have often (Hstinguished them 

 in the flocks of birds sweej)ing by tlie water's edge. Tho greater nninl)er 

 of those reaching us from higher latitudes in the autumn, after Hpcnthng 

 a few days on our coast, continue their journey further soutli, l)ut a few 



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