412 STEEPSILAS. 



Variations. N local races of this species are known. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Strepsilas melanocephalus, Vigors, Zool. Journ. iv. p. 356 (1829). 

 Strepsilas interpres melanocephalus [Vigors), Coues, Check-list, 2nd ed. p. 98 (1882). 

 Charadrius melanocephalus (Vigors), Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 12 (1885). 

 Arenaria melanocephala (Vigors), Stejneger, Orn. Expl. Coram. Isl. fy Kamtschatka, p. 

 (1885). 



Plates. — Baird, Cassin, & Lawrence, Birds N. Amer. pi. vii. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 124. 

 Eggs. — Described by Brewer on page 126 of the above-mentioned volume. 



102 



The Black Turnstone or Black-headed Turnstone is perfectly distinct from the 

 Common Turnstone, and might be placed in a different genus from that bird by those 

 ornithologists who regard the discovery of a so-called structural difference as an excuse for 

 cumbering the literature with useless synonyms. The Black-headed Turnstone has a 

 broader wing than its ally, the distance from the carpal joint to the tip of the first 

 secondary being about equal to that from the tip of the first secondary to the tip of the 

 first primary, whilst in the Common Turnstone the latter measurement is half an inch or 

 more shorter than the former. It may, however, be best diagnosed as lower back white, 

 chin and throat never pure white. 



The Black-headed Turnstone is exclusively confined to the Pacific coast of North 

 America, breeding on the coast of Alaska and the adjacent islands, and wintering on the 

 coast of California. The correlation of so limited a range of migration with so limited a 

 development of the primaries as compared with that of the secondaries cannot be regarded 

 as accidental. 



STREPSILAS VIRGATUS. 



PL VEE-BILLED TURNSTONE. 



Diagnosis. Strepsilas dorso postico brunneo. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known. 



