Upper parts variegated with white, black, and ferruginous; breast and abdomen white.

S. collaris, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. II. p. 553. Common Turnstone, Selb. Illust. vol. ii. p. 204. pl. 33*. Turnstone, Mont. Orn. Diet. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. II. pp. 108, and 110.

Dimensions

Entire length nine inches three lines: length of the bill (from the forehead) ten lines, (from the gape) eleven lines and a half; of the tarsus eleven lines and a half; of the tail two inches eight lines; from the carpus to the end of the wing five inches ten lines: breadth, wings extended, eighteen inches eight lines.

Description

(Adult male). Forehead, space between the eye and the bill, throat, and a broad collar on the nape of the neck, white: across the forehead a narrow black streak, which, passing over the eyes, becomes somewhat enlarged on the sides of the face; from thence it branches off on one side to the base of the lower mandible, on the other to the sides of the neck, where it again enlarges before uniting with a large gorget of the same colour on the lower part of the neck and breast: rest of the under parts pure white: crown of the head reddish white, with longitudinal black streaks; upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, ferruginous brown, with large irregularly distributed black spots; lower back and upper tail-coverts white; a broad black bar on the rump: quills dusky; the shafts of the primaries, and tips of the secondaries, white: tail black, tipped with white; the outer feather entirely white: bill black: feet orange-yellow. The female differs only in having the colours not so distinct; the white on the head and neck less pure; the black not so deep. (Young of the year). Head and nape cinereous brown, with darker variegations; some white spots on the cheeks and sides of the neck; throat and fore part of the neck whitish; sides of the breast deep brown, the feathers tipped with whitish; rest of the under parts, and a considerable portion of the back, pure white; upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, deep brown, all the feathers broadly edged with yellowish; the transverse bar on the rump deep brown, bordered with red: feet yellowish red. (Egg). Reddish white, blotched and spotted with dark chestnut-brown: long. diam. one inch six lines; trans, diam. one inch.

A regular winter visitant on many parts of the coast, appearing in August and departing in the Spring. Goes northward to breed. Derives its name from its habit of turning over the small stones on the shore in search of marine insects and worms on which it feeds. Is said to lay three or four eggs, in a small hollow in the sand. Obs. The Tringa Morinella of Linnaeus is this bird in immature plumage.