32 
TURN-STONE. 
STEEPSILM IJVTERPRES. 
[Plate LVIL— Fig. 1.] 
Hebridal Sandpiper y Arct, ZooL />. 472, No. 382. — Le Tourne-pierre., Buff. VII, 130. PI. enl. 
340,857, 856. — Bewick, II, p. 119, 121. — Catesby, I, 72. — Tringa interpres, Lath. 
Ind. Om, p. 738, No. 45. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 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 
Api'il ; 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-Harbor 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 Horsefoot. This animal 
is the Monociilus polyphemns 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 tuims itself on its 
belly again. The male may be distinguished from the female by 
