30 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



like one bird ; invisible one moment, a dark mov- 

 ing cloud the next, twisting, wheeling, rising, and 

 falling, and at last making for the reeds with 

 a rush and a roar like that of an express train. 

 Then the babble, each one trying to out-chatter his 

 neighbour ; then silence, the silence of the dreary- 

 flats. Again, far out, a cloud of birds is lowering — 

 they are the Pewits ; they have settled, but even from 

 where we stand we can hear the "pewit-weet-weet." 



The Collared Turnstone is a handsome bird that 

 appears on our coasts in October, leaving them 

 again in May, although a few remain all the summer 

 in Great Britain along the rocky parts of the coast. 

 From their being seen at this time of year, some 

 have stated that a few breed on our coast, but up 

 to the present time this has not been proved. Some 

 of these late-staying Turnstones have been shot for 

 the purpose of examination, and although they were 

 in what might be called summer plumage, they 

 were not so handsome as those that shoot along the 

 coast in May, on their way to their nesting haunts 

 over the North Sea. 



The bird has received its name from its habit 

 of turning over small stones, sea-weed, and other 

 refuse thrown up by the waves, where their food 

 may be hidden. It is a nimble-footed and swift- 

 winged bird, a wanderer in the full sense of the 

 word. The late Mr. Gould remarked — " If any 

 bird may be regarded as cosmopolite, it is the 

 Turnstone, for it inhabits the sea-shores of every 

 part of the globe." 



