232 
TURNSTONE. 
T have found this bird much more shy when in company with other 
species than when in flocks by itself, when it appears to suspect no danger 
from man. Many instances of this seeming inattention have occurred to 
me, among others the following : — When I was on the island of Galveston, 
in Texas, my friend Edward Harris, my son, and some others of our 
party, had shot four deer, which the sailors had brought to our little camp 
near the shore. Feeling myself rather fatigued, I did not return to the 
bushes with the rest, who went in search of more venison for our numerous 
crew, but proposed, with the assistance of one of the sailors, to skin the 
deer. After each animal was stripped of its hide, and deprived of its head 
and feet, which were thrown away, the sailor and I took it to the water and 
washed it. To my surprise, I observed four Turnstones directly in our way 
to the water. They merely ran to a little distance out of our course, and on 
our returning, came back immediately to the same place ; this they did four 
different times, and, after we were done, they remained busily engaged in 
searching for food. None of them were more than fifteen or twenty yards 
distant, and I was delighted to see the ingenuity with which they turned 
over the oyster-shells, clods of mud, and other small bodies left exposed by 
the retiring tide. Whenever the object was not too large, the bird bent its legs 
to half their length, placed its bill beneath it, and with a sudden quick jerk of 
the head pushed it off, when it quickly picked up the food which was thus 
exposed to view, and walked deliberately to the next shell to perform the 
same operation. In several instances, when the clusters of oyster-shells or 
clods of mud were too heavy to be removed in the ordinary way, they 
would use not only the bill and head, but also the breast, pushing the object 
with all their strength, and reminding me of the labour which I have under- 
gone in turning over a large turtle. Among the sea-weeds that had been 
cast on the shore, they used only the bill, tossing the garbage from side to 
side, with a dexterity extremely pleasant to behold. In this manner, I saw 
these four Turnstones examine almost every part of the shore along a space 
of from thirty to forty yards ; after which I drove them away, that our 
hunters might not kill them on their return. 
On another occasion, when in company with Mr. Harris, on the same 
island I witnessed a similar proceeding, several Turnstones being engaged in 
searching for food in precisely the same manner. At other times, and 
especially when in the neighbourhood of St. Augustine, in East Florida, I 
used to amuse myself with watching these birds on the racoon-oyster banks, 
using my glass for the purpose. I observed that they would search for such 
oysters as had been killed by the heat of the sun, and pick out their flesh 
precisely in the manner of our Common Oyster-catcher, Hcematopus pal- 
liatus, while they would strike at such small bivalves as had thin shells, and 
