STEEPSILAS INTERPRES. 901 



Female, summer (Norway, June). Intermediate between the above-described specimens ; the black markings of the 

 head, neck, and chest are not so bold as in the male, and they are intermingled with a few white feathers ; the 

 rufous coloration of the scapulars, back, and wing-coverts is less in extent and obscured with brownish, shading 

 into black on the centres of many of the feathers ; the white loral patch and the frontal band are not so well 

 defined as in the male in summer, but not so obscured as in that sex in winter. 



Young, nestling (three days old). Down " blackish grey, slightly washed with yellowish, and here and there tipped 

 with black ; along the crown a narrow black band reaching to the forehead, though not quite to the base of the 

 bill ; a similar stripe extends from the base of the upper mandible to the eye ; and there is a black spot at the 

 gape ; sides of the throat grey ; belly white ; wings and scapulars coloured like the back." {Dresser, fide Collett.) 



Immature, first autumn (25th September, Colombo). Back, rump, and under surface as in the adult female ; head and 

 hind neck brown, the feathers edged with fulvous ; interscapular region and scapulars glossy brown-black, the latter 

 tipped with whitish, and some of the feathers margined with rufescent buff ; tertials and wing-coverts brown, 

 edged with rufescent ; cheeks whitish, patched with blackish brown next the throat, which, with the chin, is 

 white ; fore neck and chest brownish black, the feathers slightly margined with rufescent, and at the sides of the 

 chest an obscure whitish fulvous-tinged black-tipped band ; inner lesser wing-coverts next the white scapular- 

 feathers white ; tail-feathers tipped with rufescent grey. 



Females in the second year (shot in spring) resemble the above in having, the lores brown ; but the wing-coverts and 

 scapulars are tipped with greyish white, as are also the pectoral feathers, and there is more white at the bend of 

 the wing. 



Obs. In a series examined from Europe, Asia, America, and the Atlantic isles the measurements are : — wine 5 - 8 to 

 6-3 inches ; tarsus 0-9 to 1-05 ; bill to gape 0-9 to 1-0. Mr. Hume records the weight of examples killed in Sindh 

 as 3 - 75 to 4-3 oz. Vastly distributed almost over the entire universe as this species is, there is, however, another 

 -which shares with it the occupation of the northern shores of America; it is the Strepsilas melanocephala of 

 Vigors. It has the head, neck, throat, interscapulars, and wings glossy brownish black, with the chin whity 

 brown, and the dark plumage of the fore neck pale-margined ; the secondaries for the most part and a band on 

 the wing-coverts extending out from the shoulders are white, as in the common species ; back, base and tip of tail 

 white, the terminal portion of the tail and a band across the rump black ; under surface as in Strepsilas interpres. 

 Examples from Vancouver's Island measure :— wing 5 - 8 to 6-2 inches ; tail 2 - 4 ; tarsus 1-0 ; bill to gape 1*05. 



Distribution. — The Turnstone is common on the north-west coast in suitable localities, as also in the 

 Jaffna Peninsula ; it appears to be rare on the opposite side of the island, as I have only seen it once or 

 twice in the Trincomalie district, and that was near Foul Point. It was met with in the Kirinde and Ham- 

 bantota district in March, but not in any numbers. On the west coast south of Chilaw it appears to be only 

 a straggler. Layard met with it at Colombo ; and I have seen young birds on the rocks of the Galle Buck 

 on one occasion. In the north, in the month of March, I observed a few examples on the Pootoor lagoon, near 

 Jaffna ; small numbers at the entrance to the Jaffna lake ; large flocks on the Erinativoe Islands, at Illipe- 

 kadua, and on the Manaar flats ; isolated individuals at Aripu ; and considerable numbers at Karativoe Island. 

 The majority leave the island in April; but Mr. Holdsworth has procured it in August at Aripu, the individual 

 in question being no doubt a barren and non-migratory bird. I have also seen it at Chilaw. It frequents the 

 coasts of India, but does not seem to be common north of Madras and at the head of the Bay ; and on the 

 Burmese and Tenasserim coasts it appears, curiously, not to have been observed. No one but Blyth has 

 recorded it from the Calcutta district. Jerdon remarks that it is found on the rocky beds of large rivers, and 

 states that he procured it in the Deccan more than 200 miles inland. Mr. Adam has likewise met with it in 

 September at the Sambhur Lake, which is still further from the coast; but as the specimens he alludes to 

 were observed in September, they were evidently birds on passage from the north. On the Laccadives it was 

 the commonest bird in the group when Mr. Hume visited it ; and in the Andamans and Nicobars it is widely 

 distributed, though not abundant. It is recorded in ' Stray Feathers ' as abundant in Kurrachee harbour in 

 the cold season ; and Major Le Messurier met with it on Baba Island, off the Sindh coast, in August. It has 

 been observed on the Mekran coast ; and in the Gulf of Oman Capt. Butler saw it in May ; he likewise states 

 that it is to be seen at Kurrachee in the hot weather. It is probably found on all the islands of the Indian 



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