34 
TURN-STONE. 
lai'Iy well constructed for this purpose, differing from all the rest 
of its tribe, and very much resembling, in shape, that of the com- 
mon Nuthatch. We learn from Mr. Pennant, that these birds in- 
habit Hudson’s bay, Greenland, and the arctic flats of Siberia, 
where they breed, wandering southerly in autumn. It is said 
to build on the ground, and to lay four eggs, of an olive color, 
spotted with black ; and to inhabit the isles of the Baltic during 
summer. 
The Turn-stone flies with a loud twittering note, and runs 
with its wings lowered ; but not with the rapidity of others of its 
tribe. It examines more completely the same spot of ground, and, 
like some of the Woodpeckers, will remain searching in the same 
place, tossing the stones and pebbles from side to side for a con- 
siderable time. 
These birds vary greatly in color, scarcely two individuals 
are to be found alike in markings. These varieties are most nu- 
merous in autumn when the young birds are about ; and are less 
frequently met with in spring. The most perfect specimens I have 
examined are as follows : 
Length eight inches and a half, extent seventeen inches ; bill 
blackish horn ; frontlet, space passing through the eyes, and thence 
dropping down and joining the under mandible, black, enclosing 
a spot of white. Crown white, streaked with black; breast black, 
whence it turns up half across the neck ; behind the eye a spot 
of black ; upper part of the neck white, running down and skirt- 
ing the black breast as far as the shoulder ; upper part of the 
back black, divided by a strip of bright ferruginous ; scapulars 
black, glossed with greenish, and interspersed with rusty red ; 
Avhole back below this pure white, but hid by the scapulars ; rump 
black ; tail-coverts white ; tail rounded, white at the base half, 
thence black to the extremity ; belly and vent white ; wings dark 
dusky, crossed by two bands of white ; lower half of the lesser co- 
verts ferruginous ; legs and feet a bright vermilion, or red lead ; 
