934 TURNSTONE. 



Turnstone or Sea Dotterel, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 30. 

 Turnstone, Strepsilas Interpres, And. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 31. 



Male, 9, 18f. 



Not uncommon along the shores of the Southern States during winter, 

 though the greater number remove much farther south. Breeds in high 

 northern latitudes, Hudson's Bay, and shores of Arctic Seas. Never in the 

 interior. 



Adult Male in summer. 



Bill a little shorter than the head, rather stout, compressed, tapering, 

 straightish, being recurvate in a slight degree. Upper mandible with the 

 dorsal line very slightly concave, the nasal groove extending to the middle, 

 the sides beyond it sloping, the tip depressed and blunted. Nostrils sub- 

 basal, linear-oblong, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle short, the 

 dorsal line ascending and slightly convex, the sides convex, the edges sharp, 

 the tip depressed and blunted. 



Head small, ovate; eyes of moderate size. Neck of ordinary length. 

 Body rather full. Feet of moderate length, stout; tibia bare at the lower 

 part, and covered with reticulated scales; tarsus roundish, with numerous 

 broad anterior scutella; toes four, the first very small, and placed higher than 

 the rest; the anterior toes free to the base, distinctly margined on both edges, 

 the inner toe a little shorter than the outer, the third or middle toe consider- 

 ably longer; claws rather small, arcuate, compressed, blunted. 



Plumage full, soft, rather dense, and glossy; feathers on the hind neck 

 blended, and rather narrow, on the other parts ovate. Wings long, pointed, 

 of moderate breadth; primaries with strong shafts, rather broad, narrowed 

 towards the end, the first longest, the rest rapidly decreasing; outer seconda- 

 ries incurved, obliquely rounded; inner elongated, one of them extending to 

 half an inch of the tip of the longest primary, when the wing is closed. 

 Tail rather short, slightly rounded, of twelve moderately broad, rounded 

 feathers. 



Bill black. Iris hazel. Feet deep orange-red, claws black. Plumage 

 variegated with white, black, brown, and red. Upper parts of the head and 

 nape streaked with black and reddish-white; a broad band of white crosses 

 the forehead, passes over the eyes, and down the sides of the neck, the 

 hind part of which is reddish-white, faintly mottled with dusky; a frontal 

 band of black curves downwards before the eye, enclosing a white patch on 

 the lore, and meeting another black band glossed with blue, which proceeds 

 down the neck, from the base of the lower mandible, enlarging behind the 

 ear, covering the whole anterior part of the neck, and passing along the 

 shoulder over the scapulars; the throat, hind part of the back, the outer 



