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TURNSTONE. 



H"Strepsilas Interpres, Linn. 

 PLATE CCCXXIII. — Adult in Summer and Winter. 



This bird, which, in its full vernal dress, is one of the most beautiful of its 

 family, is found along the southern coasts of the United States during win- 

 ter, from North Carolina to the mouth of the Sabine river, in considerable 

 numbers, although perhaps as many travel at that season into Texas and 

 Mexico, where I observed it on its journey eastward, from the beginning of 

 April to the end of May, 1837. I procured many specimens in the course 

 of my rambles along the shores of the Florida Keys, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of St. Augustine, and have met with it in May and June, as well as in 

 September and October, in almost every part of our maritime shores, from 

 Maine to Maryland. On the coast of Labrador I looked for it in vain, al- 

 though Dr. Richardson mentions their arrival at their breeding quarters on 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea up to the seventy-fifth 

 parallel. 



In spring the Turnstone is rarely met with in flocks exceeding five or six 

 individuals, but often associates with other species, such as the Knot, the 

 Red-backed Sandpiper, and the Tringa subarquata. Towards the end of 

 autumn, however, they collect into large flocks, and so continue during the 

 winter. I have never seen it on the margins of rivers or lakes, but always 

 on the shores of the sea, although it prefers those of the extensive inlets so 

 numerous on our coasts. At times it rambles to considerable distances from 

 the beach, for I have found it on rocky islands thirty miles from the main- 

 land; and on two occasions, whilst crossing the Atlantic, I saw several flocks 

 near the Great Banks flying swiftly, and rather close to the water around the 

 ships, after which they shot off toward the south-west, and in a few minutes 

 were out of sight. It seems to be a hardy bird, for some of them remain in 

 our Eastern Districts until severe frost prevails. Having seen some, in the 

 beginning of June, and in superb plumage, on the high grounds of the Island 

 of Grand Mannan, in the Bay of Fundy, I supposed that they bred there, 

 although none of my party succeeded in discovering their nests. Indeed the 

 young, as I have been informed, are obtained there, and along the coast of 

 Maine, in the latter part of July. 



