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So also does the Plover you learned this morning. The three families of Snipes, Plovers, and Rails are the largest ones of all the tribe of Birds that Paddle and Wade by the sea-shore. The Rails from their size and shape are sometimes called Marsh Hens. The Turnstone belongs to a fourth family, but it is a very small one.
Mr. Rodd, however, tells me he does not believe in its breeding in the Scilly Islands, though it is seen about there throughout the year, as it is in the Channel Islands. Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks on Professor Ansted's list, merely says, "The Turnstone is found about the neighbourhood of Herm throughout the year."
"What do they look like very near by?" asked Dodo, who always wanted details, while the boys took a more general sportsmanlike interest. "The Turnstone is very trim and pretty when seen close at hand, and from the pattern of the feathers is often called Calico-bird. The Golden Plover is darker and not so conspicuously marked, especially at this season." The Turnstone
This last summer I was in hopes of being more successful either in Guernsey itself or in Herm, or the rocks near there, but I did not see a single Turnstone alive the whole time I was in Guernsey. I think it very likely, however, I should have been successful in Herm, as I visited it several times both by myself and with Col. l'Estrange and Mr.
The turnstone, when surrounded by comrades belonging to more energetic species, is a rather timorous bird; but it undertakes to keep watch for the security of the commonwealth when surrounded by smaller birds.
I have long been very sceptical on this subject, but now I have very little doubt, as I think, seeing the birds about, paired, in Guernsey in June and the pair shot in Herm, the female with eggs in June, pretty well removes any doubt as to the Turnstone breeding in the Islands, and I do not see why it should not, as it breeds quite as far south in the Azores, and almost certainly in the Canaries.
In November, 1871, a friend of mine told me that, after a long day's shooting from daylight till dark, he succeeded in bagging one Teal and one Woodcock. I was rather glad I was not with him on this occasion, but chose the wild shooting on the shore, where I got one or two Golden Plovers, and Turnstone and Ring Dotterel enough for a pie and, by-the-bye, a very good pie they made.
Bill shaped like a Pigeon's. In winter: Without any pure black on the under parts, which are muddy whitish mixed and marbled with gray. A Citizen of North America, whose summer home is with the Turnstone in the far North, and who travels to South America every fall and back again in the spring. We mostly see it in flocks on these journeys.
Professor Ansted includes the Kentish Plover in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a male, in the Museum. TURNSTONE. Strepsilas interpres, Linnaeus. French, "Tourne pierre," "Tourne pierre a collier."
Even now I think with pity of one particular turnstone. Some being made "a little lower than the angels" had fired at him and carried away one of his legs. I watched him for an hour. Much of the time he stood motionless. Then he hobbled from one patch of eel-grass to another, in search of something to eat.
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