88 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



seems not unlikely in both cases, as the bird has been seen in N. Scotland and 

 the Faeroes throughout the summer. But it must not be forgotten that a good 

 many Waders do not breed, and are found, in partial or complete summer plumage, 

 south of their true breeding grounds ; whether these non-breeders are some of the 

 last year's birds (as seems probable), or whether there is a temporary predominance 

 of one sex, as with us, so that all cannot find mates, is difficult to determine. If 

 Mr. Rudyard Kipling would devote his "Jungle Book" abilities to the solution 

 of these difficulties, and pass a couple of springs and summers in the society of 

 birds, he would earn the undying gratitude of ornithologists ! The Turnstone 

 passes along our coasts in considerable numbers ; a few stay all the winter with 

 us, and in May are re-inforced by large numbers from the south. Early in 

 August, a few old birds in summer plumage return from more northerly regions, 

 the third week of that month many young birds are to be seen. In winter the 

 Turnstone is found, as has been hinted, in a considerable portion of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, including the islands of the Pacific. I have shot it in winter dress 

 on Rodrigues (Phil. Trans., vol. i68, p. 462), which is a small island out in the 

 Indian Ocean, with three hundred miles of sea between it and the nearest land; 

 Waders, including this bird and the Whimbrel, were pretty abundant there never- 

 theless. The Turnstone keeps to coasts, as a rule, and rarely goes far inland, 

 except, apparently, in India (Jerdon). 



The male in summer (R. Goubesta, Kolguiev, 6, 7, 95 ; shot from a nest with 

 three chicks and one fresh ^^^ ! Has a bare hatching spot on either side of the 

 breast). Bill black, slightly "turned up"; iris umber; forehead, lores, a patch 

 behind the eye, back of neck, lower back, chin, and under surface generally, white ; 

 crown white, with broad black shaft-stripes ; upper surface generally black, wjth a 

 bronzy sheen and broad chestnut tips to the feathers on the scapulars, tertiaries, 

 and greater wing- coverts ; a line of white through the median coverts, extending 

 down the outer margins of the tertiaries ; tail white, with a black bar and white 

 tips to all but the central pair of feathers, which increases in area outwards till 

 the external pair are almost entirely white; a black moustache from the base of 

 the lower mandible to the breast, joining the broad black pectoral belt, and sending 

 upwards on either side a curved black line in front of the eye (which does not 

 reach the base of the upper mandible, as Saunders states, nor do the two meet in 

 the middle in full summer dress, though they do in birds shot on our shores on 

 the southward journey, which are only in partial summer dress), and another 

 broader line, which goes half-way round the bottom of the neck; feet and legs 

 rich orange, claws black. Length about nine inches, closed wing six, or rather 

 less. A male in my collection, from Yokohama (2, 5, 83), has much more chestnut 



