232 TURNSTONE. 



I have found this bird much more shy when in company with other 

 species than when in flocks by itself, when it appears to suspect no danger 

 from man. Many instances of this seeming inattention have occurred to 

 me, among others the following: — When I was on the island of Galveston 

 in Texas, my friend Edward Harris, my son, and some others of our 

 party, had shot four deer, which the sailors had brought to our little camp 

 near the shore. Feeling myself rather fatigued, I did not return to the 

 bushes with the rest, who went in search of more venison for our numerous 

 crew, but proposed, with the assistance of one of the sailors, to skin the 

 deer. After each animal was stripped of its hide, and deprived of its head 

 and feet, which were thrown away, the sailor and I took it to the water and 

 washed it. To my surprise, I observed four Turnstones directly in our way 

 to the water. They merely ran to a little distance out of our course, and on 

 our returning, came back immediately to the same place; this they did four 

 different times, and, after we w T ere done, they remained busily engaged in 

 searching for food. None of them were more than fifteen or twenty yards 

 distant, and I was delighted to see the ingenuity with which they turned 

 over the oyster-shells, clods of mud, and other small bodies left exposed by 

 the retiring tide. Whenever the object was not too large, the bird bent its legs 

 to half their length, placed its bill beneath it, and with a sudden quick jerk of 

 the head pushed it off, when it quickly picked up the food which was thus 

 exposed to view, and walked deliberately to the next shell to perform the 

 same operation. In several instances, when the clusters of oyster-shells or 

 clods of mud were too heavy to be removed in the ordinary way, they 

 would use not only the bill and head, but also the breast, pushing the object 

 with all their strength, and reminding me of the labour which I have under- 

 gone in turning over a large turtle. Among the sea-weeds that had been 

 cast on the shore, they used only the bill, tossing the garbage from side to 

 side, with a dexterity extremely pleasant to behold. In this manner, I saw 

 these four Turnstones examine almost every part of the shore along a space 

 of from thirty to forty yards; after which I drove them away, that our hun- 

 ters might not kill them on their return. 



On another occasion, when in company with Mr. Harris, on the same 

 island I witnessed a similar proceeding, several Turnstones being engaged in 

 searching for food in precisely the same manner. At other times, and 

 especially when in the neighbourhood of St. Augustine, in East Florida, I 

 used to amuse myself with watching these birds on the racoon-oyster banks, 

 using my glass for the purpose. I observed that they would search for such 

 oysters as had been killed by the heat of the sun, and pick out their flesh 

 precisely in the manner of our Common Oyster-catcher, Hsematopus pal- 

 liatus, while they would strike at such small bivalves as had thin shells, and 



