BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 359 



RUDDY TURNSTONE {Arenaria interpres morinella). 



Common or local names: Turnstone; Chicken-plover; Chicken-bird; Chicken; Brant- 

 bird; Redlegs; Sparked-back; Streaked-back; Creddock; Sea-quail. 



Length. — 8 to 9.50 inches; bill .80 to .90. 



Adult. — Pied above with black, white, brown and chestnut red or rufous; 

 the white top of head streaked with black; upper breast, fore neck and 

 region about eye black; white showing on back and wings in iiight; 

 below mainly white, except breast; legs and feet orange red or coral 

 red; bill blackish. 



Young, — Upper parts brown, streaked with gray or mottled with black 

 and paler brown; in flight, lower back, wings and tail appear similar 

 to those of adult; sides of throat and breast dark brown, mottled; rest 

 of under parts white. 



Field Marks. — ■ In flight three longitudinal stripes of white show on back, 

 the middle one interrupted by a patch of black at base of tail. In adult 

 plumage the black upper breast, reddish-brown back and red feet may 

 be distinguished by the use of a glass. 



Notes. — When flying, a loud twittering note (Nuttall). Call note a chuck- 

 ling whistle (Hoffmann). A clear whistle of two or three notes, deep, 

 melodious. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds on Arctic shores from Mac- 

 kenzie River east, probably to Melville Peninsula, and north to Melville 

 Island; winters from central California, Texas, Louisiana and South 

 Carolina to southern Brazil and central Chile. 



History. 

 This bird, which is known quite generally among the older 

 shore gunners of Massachusetts as the Chicken-plover or 

 chicken, is known on Nantucket as the Creddock. It formerly 

 was very abundant, and was one of the first shore birds named 

 in the game laws of Massachusetts, when, in 1835, a law was 



