496 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFOMNIA 



here was like that of a dog when he buries a bone by pushing the earth over 

 it with his nose. They lowered their heads, and with more or less effort 

 according to circumstances accomplished their purpose. 



If the obstacle proved too heavy to be moved in this manner, they drew 

 back a little and made a run at it as men do ... in using a battering-ram. 

 More than once I saw them gaining the needed momentum by this means. . . . 



They quarreled now and then over the business, and once two of them 

 faced each other, bill to bill, like game-cocks, a most unusual proceeding 

 among waders, firing off little fusillades of exclamations meanwhile. . . . The 

 turnstones' disagreements were of the briefest, however, slight ebullitions of 

 temper rather than any actual belligerency. 



"When they take to wing, as they do by a common flock impulse, 

 the transformation in appearance is a delight to the eye. Instead of 

 a roM' of dull-colored clods, there appears a constant cyclorama of 

 flashing white, set off by variegating blacks" (Dawson, 1909, p. 694). 



Torrey states that one of the birds observed by him rested by 

 dropping its body down on the sand, rather than by standing on one 

 leg as is the habit of so many other species. This mannerism is said 

 by Kells (1895, p. 64) also to be evinced if the birds are startled 

 when above the edge of the water. 



In an account of the birds of the 1906 cruise of the "Albatross," 

 A. H. Clark (1910, p. 51) says: 



On the first day out of San Francisco, May 4, we saw several small flocks 

 of these birds on their way north; each succeeding day they became more 

 abundant until on the afternoon of May 8 we saw them by thousands, in 

 flocks of from ten or twenty to several hundred. At one time, about 2 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, the whole sea appeared dotted with white, so abundant were 

 they. All the birds noticed were headed up the coast, going the same direction 

 as we. 



In the mornings these birds were comparatively rare; they began to appear 

 about 11, and increased in numbers until about 2, when they were very abun- 

 dant; shortly after 3 there was a falling off until by half past 4 few, if any, 

 were to be seen. . . . Whether they spent the night and early morning on the 

 neighboring shores or resting on the water I am unable to say; but all we saw 

 were on the wing; possibly there were other shore birds in these multitudes, 

 but all which came near the ship were of this species. 



The Black Turnstone breeds rather commonly along a limited 

 stretch of the western coast of Alaska, from the vicinity of Kotzebue 

 Sound south to Nushagak, on Bristol Bay,, and a short distance inland 

 along the lower course of the Yukon River. Strangely, there are but 

 few records of its nesting; descriptions of its eggs are scanty and 

 records of downy young are apparently wanting altogether. The 

 nest, which is simply a depression in the surface of the ground, is 

 situated on the seabeach or among near-by brackish pools. The eggs, 

 which are pear-shaped, are said to number three or four, and measure 



