32 



TURN-STONE. 

 TRINGA INTERPRET. 

 [Plate LVII.— Fig. 1.] 



Mebridal Sandpiper, Jirct. ZooL p. 472, .JVo. 382 Le Tourne-pierre, Buff. VIT, 130. Fl. Enl. ±30.— - 



Bewick, 11, p. 119, 121.— Catesby, I, 72. — ^Peale's Museum^ JVo. 4044. 



THIS beautifully variegated species is common to both Eu- 

 rope and America; consequently extends its migrations far to the 

 north. It arrives from the south on the shores of New Jersey in 

 April ; leaves them early in June ; is seen on its return to the south 

 in October; and continues to be occasionally seen until the com- 

 mencement of cold weather, when it disappears for the season. It 

 is rather a scarce species in this part of the world, and of a soli- 

 tary 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, during 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 polyphemus of entomologists. Its usual size is 

 from twelve to fifteen inches in breadth, by two feet in length; 

 tho sometimes it is found much larger. The head, or forepart, is 

 semicircular, 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 distinguished from the female by 



