550 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Nov. and March to early June. Winter weather-movements both 

 of arrival and departure are usual. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds in Europe (from the Arctic circle 

 to south Spain) and in northern Asia eastwards to the Pacific Ocean 

 [according to Irby north Marocco, and (?) Egypt]. Winters in south 

 Europe, north Africa, Atlantic Islands, Asia Minor, Persia and north 

 India, China and south Japan. Casual in Greenland, Iceland, 

 Alaska, Jan Mayen, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New York, 

 Bahamas, and Barbados. 



Genus ARENARIA Briss. 



Arenaria Brisson, Orn., i, p. 48 (1760 — Type by tautonymy, according 

 to V, p. 132, Arenaria = Tringa interpres L.) 



Characterized by peculiar straight or very slightly recurved, 

 somewhat conical, short, pointed bill with somewhat flattened 

 culmen. Legs and feet short and stout, tarsus not longer than 

 middle toe, scutellated in front, reticulated behind. Toes without 

 any connecting webs, hind toe well developed. 2 species, one with 

 two very closely allied subspecies. 



ARENARIA INTERPRES 



385. Arenaria interpres interpres (L.)— THE TURNSTONE. 



Tringa Interpres Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 148 (1758 — Europe 

 and N. America. Restricted typical locality : Gothland). 

 Strepsilas interpres (Linnaeus), Yarrell, in, p. 289 ; Saunders, p. 557. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Lores, crown and 

 nape dusky-brown, feathers of crown with blackish centres, those 

 of fore -head and lores more or less edged bullish -white ; mantle and 

 scapulars black-brown and dark sepia, feathers shading to ash- 

 brown or dusky-brown and faintly tipped white (scapulars some- 

 times with edges shaded tawny) ; back and rump white, latter 

 more or less black bordering upper tail-coverts ; upper tail-coverts 

 black, sometimes more or less tipped white, long ones white ; ear- 

 coverts, cheeks and sides of neck dusky black-brown ; chin and 

 throat white ; lower -throat and breast brown-black, feathers mostly 

 tipped white and with partially concealed white bases ; sides of 

 upper-breast ash-brown, some feathers tipped white ; an inverted 

 V-shaped area in centre of breast and remaining under -parts white ; 

 tail-feathers black-brown tipped white (central pair only slightly), 

 bases white, outer pair white with an irregular subterminal dusky 

 marking ; primaries black-brown, shafts white, inner webs white 

 at base, inner feathers with faint white tips and with outer webs 

 with basal halves white ; secondaries black-brown with tips and 

 bases white, and inner webs largely white, inner feathers almost 

 entirely white, innermost and coverts as scapulars ; primary- 

 coverts black-brown, inner ones tipped white ; greater coverts 

 black-brown, broadly tipped white and more or less white on inner 



