stones and
pebbles along the shore in quest of food, overturning them in search of
the insects or prey of any kind which may be lurking beneath. It is
found on smooth, sandy beaches, though more commonly about the base of
rocky cliffs and cones. The eggs of horseshoe crabs are its particular
delight.

In the nesting season the Turnstone is widely distributed throughout
the northern portions of both continents, and wanders southward along
the sea-coasts of all countries. In America it breeds commonly in the
Barren Lands of the Arctic coasts and the Anderson River districts, on
the Islands of Franklin and Liverpool bays, nesting in July. In the
Hudson's Bay country the eggs are laid in June. The nest is a hollow
scratched in the earth, and is lined with bits of grass.

The Turnstone is known by various names: "Brant Bird," "Bead-bird,"
"Horse-foot-Snipe," "Sand-runner," "Calico-back," "Chicaric" and
"Chickling." The two latter names have reference to its rasping notes,
"Calico-back," to the variegated plumage of the upper parts.

In summer the adults are oddly pied above with black, white, brown, and
chestnut-red, but the red is totally wanting in winter. They differ from
the true Plovers in the well developed hind-toe, and the strong claws,
but chiefly in the more robust feet, without trace of web between the
toes.

The eggs are greenish-drab in color, spotted, blotched, and dotted
irregularly and thickly with yellowish and umber brown. The eggs are two
or four, abruptly pyriform in shape.

SNOWBIRDS.

Along the narrow sandy height
I watch them swiftly come and go,
Or round the leafless wood,
Like flurries of wind-driven snow,
Revolving in perpetual flight,
A changing multitude.

Nearer and nearer still they sway,
And, scattering in a circled sweep,
Rush down without a sound;
And now I see them peer and peep,
Across yon level bleak and gray,
Searching the frozen ground,--

Until a little wind upheaves,
And makes a sudden rustling there,
And then they drop their play,
Flash up into the sunless air,
And like a flight of silver leaves
Swirl round and sweep away.
ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
TURNSTONE.
Copyrighted by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]

BIRDS OF PASSAGE