TURNSTONE. 
15 
GENUS XL STREPSILAS, Illiger. 
199 . STREPSILAS INTERPRES , ILLIG . — TRINGA INTERPRES , WILS. 
TURNSTONE. 
WILSON, PLATE LVII. FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This beautifully variegated species is common to both 
Europe and America ; consequently extends its migra- 
tions far to the north. It arrives from the south on 
the shores of New Jersey in April ; 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 solitary 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 Harbour, 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 horse-foot. This animal is the 
monoculus polyhemus of entomologists. Its usual size 
is from twelve to fifteen inches in breadth, by two feet 
in length ; though 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 turns itself on its belly again. The male 
may be distinguished from the female by his two 
large claws having only a single hook each, instead of 
the forceps of the female. In the bay of Delaware, 
below Egg Island, and in what is usually called Maurice 
River Cove, these creatures seem to have formed one of 
their principal settlements. The bottom of this cove 
