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PRiECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLiE. 
Yarrell states that it frequents the British coast, either singly or in smart flocks of 
four or five in number, from August throughout the winter till May. Dr. Fleming 
states that it is resident in Zetland, and found there at all seasons. Hewitson men- 
tions its breeding on the coast of Norway. After visiting numerous islands, he was 
about to land on a flat rock, bare except where, here and there, tufts of grass or 
stunted juniper were growing, when his attention was attracted by the singular cry 
of a Turnstone, which had perched itself upon an eminence of the rock, assuring him 
by its querulous, oft-repeated note and anxious motions, that its nest was there. 
After a minute search he succeeded in finding the latter placed against a ledge of the 
rock, and consisting of nothing more than the dropping leaves of the juniper-bush, 
under a creeping branch of which the eggs, four in number, were snugly concealed, 
admirably sheltered, and allowing just sufficient room for the bird to cover them. He 
afterward found several other nests, each containing four eggs. The time of breed- 
ing was the middle of June. He describes their eggs as having an olive-green ground, 
spotted and streaked with ashy blue, and two shades of reddish brown. They meas- 
ured 1.59 by 1.17 inches. 
Professor Alfred Newton mentions that the Turnstone is said by Faber to occur 
in Iceland, being more common in the south and west than in the north. It arrives 
about the last week in April, and breeds in Iceland, as Mr. Proctor received its eggs 
from the northern portion of that island. It usually leaves again in the autumn ; 
but a few remain late in the season, as Faber obtained one Dec. 11, 1820. 
In America it occurs throughout the continent, Mr. Charles Darwin finding it, on 
the voyage of the “ Beagle,” in the Straits of Magellan, and the various Arctic ex- 
plorers meeting with it in North Greenland, on Winter Island, at Felix Harbor, and 
on the coast near Fury Point and Victoria Harbor. Dr. Walker found it breeding 
early in June in the marshy valleys in Bellot’s Strait. Reinhardt includes it among 
the birds of Greenland. Captain Blakiston met with it at York Factory, Hudson’s 
Bay, in August, and Mr. Ross mentions it as present, but as rare, on the Macken- 
zie River. Richardson speaks of it as common in the Fur Country, where it reaches 
its breeding-quarters on the shores of Hudson’s Bay and the Arctic Sea, as far north 
as the 75th parallel, in June, leaving them at the beginning of September. It is 
common in Bermuda during the winter, and is of irregular occurrence in most, or all, 
of the West India Islands. Professor Newton met with it in St. Croix in April, 1857, 
and Mr. E. Newton saw it there, Sept. 8, 1858. Leotaud speaks of it as a migratory 
visitant of Trinidad, where it never fails to arrive in August, departing in October. 
It is said to be almost always found alone, flitting along the borders of the sea, some- 
times silent, and at other times uttering a soft, peculiar cry, which is not easily 
described. Certain kinds of shore seem to suit it best ; in these it stops to search 
under the small stones, which it turns over with its bill for the worms, etc., on which 
it feeds. It is the “ Plover ” of Trinidad ; but its flesh is not held in high esteem. 
It was taken by Xantus on the Rio Zacatula, in Mexico, and by others in Ecuador, 
Guiana, the Argentine Republic, Peru, Chili, and in the West Indies. 
Mr. Salvin obtained specimens late in April among the islands on the coast of 
Honduras, and mentions it as common in winter on both coasts of Guatemala. Mr. 
Dresser noticed a number of these birds quite close to Galveston on the 26tli of May, 
1861; and afterward, on a second visit, found them as late as June. It is a regular 
visitant to Massachusetts in its migrations, passing north usually in April, and 
coming south in September or August. It was quite common on the shore of Lake 
Koskonong, Wis., about Aug. 15, 1873. Only a single specimen is known to have 
been taken on the Pacific coast — by Dr. Cooper at the mouth of the Columbia. 
