90 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



usually, heap of sea-weed, then, with a funny upward jerk of its whole body 

 (automaton-like) the object is suddenly lifted and turned over, and the bird 

 quickly picks up any small creatures which have been concealed underneath. If 

 the stone be a heavy one, the breast is applied to move it, without the peculiar 

 jerk. The food of the nestling described above, and of two others I obtained 

 about the same time, consisted of small beetles and flies, and there was a 

 considerable amount of unused yolk-sac in the abdomina. 



The Turnstone is a silent bird with us, entirely so on the ground, and on 

 the wing uttering a low rapid unmelodious twitter or chuckle. But at the nest 

 in the far north, it is certainly vociferous, uttering continually a loud clear and 

 not unpleasing note, usually on the wing, which I have mentally vocalised 

 (though I have little belief in printed formulae of birds' notes) by the syllables, 

 " Gibby-gibby " repeated rapidly and continuously. The Turnstone is a fairly 

 good bird for the table, before it has been too long on our shores — comparing 

 most favourably with the Redshank, for instance. In captivity (as we learn from 

 Saunders' Yarrell, and as would be expected by any one who had watched the 

 bird much) it gets very tame, and makes a pretty and engaging pet. 



It is a handsome bird when at large, and a difficult one to describe, as 

 readers of the foregoing (with which I am very moderately satisfied) will have 

 gathered. Its pied appearance rather suggests a miniature of the Oyster- Catcher; 

 indeed, I have heard it called locally the "little pyot," but much more commonly 

 the "dotterel." 



I once obtained an example of this bird which had only one mandible (the 

 upper), the lower one having been cut off by some injury where it joins the 

 head, and the scar quite healed up. But it was in good condition. 



