156 
Field Marks. A medium-sized Wader with bill as short as the head, considerable 
white on inner secondaries and white rump. In spring, breast and underparts coarsely 
and heavily spotted. In autumn, a grey and white Wader with decidedly but softly 
streaked breast and foreneck. 
Distribution. Pacific coast of North and South America. Breeds in the interior of 
west Alaska and Yukon. Nest only lately discovered. Winters on the outer coast of 
Vancouver island and the coast of southern South America. 
As its name implies, it is a bird of the surf. It is found on the shores 
of rocky islets that receive the full heave of the open sea, amidst the spume 
and spray of the breakers. 
Subfamily— Arenariinae. Turnstones 
Medium-sized Shore Birds, coloured in striking and pronounced 
pattern. Bill moderately short, slightly turned up and horny for terminal 
half. The tip is slightly flattened in horizontal plane, but not distinctly 
enlarged as in the Plovers (Figures 182, 183, compare with 178-180). 
283a. Turnstone (Including European and Ruddy Turnstones), calico plover 
Arenaria interpres. L, 9-50. 
Distinctions. A strikingly coloured bird. Back in rather broad masses of dull red, 
black, and white more or less intermixed. Rump and head white, the crown striped with 
brown or black. Underparts pure white, with black 
breast-band, extending up side of neck to face where it 
makes a circle through the eye and around a white 
loral spot (Figure 182). Autumn birds have the colours 
subdued and the back coloration lost or only faintly 
represented, but enough of the face and breast markings 
always remain to suggest the above diagnosis. 
Field Marks. The peculiar pied coloration in red, 
black, and white of the spring plumage. In the 
autumn the white lower back and uppertail coverts 
separated by a dark bar. 
Nesting. Depression in the ground lined with a 
few dead leaves or vegetable fibres. 
Distribution. The Turnstone as a species has one 
of the widest distributions of any bird, there being 
few countries where it has not occurred. The 
American subspecies, the Ruddy Turnstone, breeds from the Arctic coast west of Hudson 
bay northward, and is more common on the Atlantic than the Pacific coast. Migrates 
throughout most of southern Canada except the interior of British Columbia. Rather 
scarcer in Saskatchewan and Alberta than in Manitoba and on the coasts. 
Figure 182 
Turnstone; scale, 
SUBSPECIES. The Turnstone is represented in America by the Ruddy Turnstone 
Arenaria intrepres morinella, rather smaller than the European form, Arenaria inierpres 
interpres , more red above and legs less intensely vermilion. The latter subspecies may 
occur on the British Columbia coast. 
A bird of sandy, muddy, or rocky shores, but preferring the sand. 
It is named from its habit of turning over small stones and pebbles on the 
beach in its search for food, and it is astonishing what comparatively large 
stones it can move. It inserts its bill under the edge, gives a little fillip, 
and away goes the stone rolling or skidding over the beach to a consider- 
able distance. 
284. Black Turnstone. Arenaria melanocephala. L, 9-50. A black and white 
Turnstone, more black than white. All above, except lower back and base of tail, solid 
black with green iridescence. Head, throat, foieneck, and breast the same, cutting sharply 
against pure white flanks and underparts. Narrow bar of black between white base of tail 
and lower back. Considerable white tipping on ends of upperwing coverts and inner 
