TURNSTONE. 329 



world, and of a solitary disposition, seldom mingling among 

 the large flocks of other sandpipers ; but either coursing the 

 sands alone, or in company with two or three of its own species. 

 On the coast of Cape May and Egg Harbour this bird is well 

 known by the name of the horse-foot snipe, from its living, dur- 

 ing the months of May and June, almost wholly on the eggs, 

 or spawn, of the great king crab, called here by the common 

 people the horse-foot. This animal is the Monoculus poly- 

 pJiemus of entomologists. Its usual size is from twelve to 

 fifteen inches in breadth, by two feet in length, though some- 

 times it is found much larger. The head, or forepart, is semi- 

 circular, and convex above, covered with a thin, elastic, shelly 

 case. The lower side is concave, where it is furnished with 

 feet and claws resembling those of a crab. The posterior 

 extremity consists of a long, hard, pointed, dagger-like tail, 

 by means of which, when overset by the waves, the animal 

 turns itself on its belly again. The male may be distin- 

 guished from the female by his two large claws having only a 

 single hook each, instead of the forceps of the female. In the 

 Bay of Delaware, below Egg Island, and in what is usually 

 called Maurice River Cove, these creatures seem to have 

 formed one of their principal settlements. The bottom of 

 this cove is generally a soft mud, extremely well suited to 

 their accommodation. Here they are resident, burying them- 

 selves in the mud during the winter ; but, early in the month 

 of May, they approach the shore in multitudes, to obey the 

 great law of nature, in depositing their eggs within the influ- 

 ence of the sun, and are then very troublesome to the fisher- 

 men, who can scarcely draw a seine for them, they are so 

 numerous. Being of slow motion, and easily overset by the 

 surf, their dead bodies cover the shore in heaps, and in such 

 numbers, that for ten miles one might walk on them without 

 touching the ground. 



The hogs from the neighbouring country are regularly 

 driven down, every spring, to feed on them, which they do 

 with great avidity ; though by this kind of food their flesh 



