STREPSJLAS INTERPRETS (Leach). 



TURNSTONE. Genus: Strepsilas. 



THAT indefatigable naturalist, Gould, who compared, weighed, and investigated evidence from every 

 possible quarter before he pronounced an opinion, says, that so far as his experience went, he 

 could detect no difference between the Turnstone of Europe, America, or Australia, and was inclined to 

 believe them one and the same species. Should this be a fact, it is a singular contradiction of the local 

 effect of climate upon individuals. The Turnstone is found indiscriminately wherever there are sea shores, 

 yet the tropic and arctic frequenters exhibit no variety such as might be expected to arise out of local 

 influences. This is a true cosmopolite. 



It has been noticed that the birds to be met with in the temperate regions, such as Tasmania, 

 are usually miniature specimens, few adults being seen, while in the torrid regions, such as Torres 

 Straits, the converse holds good, and the inference drawn is that the birds breed in the hot countries 

 and the young ones annually migrate to the cooler southern countries. 



The food of these birds, as may be expected from their love of the sea shore, consists of marine 

 insects, molluscs, and small shell-fish. 



The egg is large for the size of the bird, pear-shaped, with a ground colour of a pale olive or 

 warmish-green, daubed and smudged with large and small patches of umber, the larger markings are 

 about the thicker end, where some have the appearance of having been wiped in obliquely with a brush. 

 Altogether, this interesting egg presents a singular appearance. Length, 1 inch 7 lines ; breadth, 1 inch 

 1^ lines. (./. A. Campbell.) 



The sexes are alike except that the female is slightly less bright than her mate. The young 

 are rather long in developing the full adult plumage, and for some time after they are fully grown are 

 much darker in colour and lack the white face-markings and the chestnut tints that make the older 

 birds so beautiful. 



The adult has the forehead, eyebrows, and oval spot before each eye, the centre of the throat, 

 ear-coverts, nape of the neck, lower part of the back, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, white ; from eye to 

 eye across the forehead a band of black, which dips downward in the centre of the bill ; lrom the base 

 of the lower mandible proceeds a mark of black, which passes upwards to the eye, dilates backwards 

 towards the nape, covers the front of the chest, and bifurcates towards the insertion of the wing ; mantle 

 and scapularies, reddish-brown, irregularly varied with black ; rump, black ; wings, black, the basal part of 

 the inner webs and the shafts of the primaries, white ; secondaries, broadly tipped with white, forming a 

 conspicuous bar across the wings ; bill and irides, black ; legs and feet, orange. (Gould.) 



In the young the whole of the upper surface is mottled brown and black, the white mark on 

 the throat much larger, and only a slight trace of it on the face and nape. 



Habitats : Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, 

 Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria 

 and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South-West Australia. New Zealand, South Coast of New 

 Guinea. (Ramsay.) 



