the adult but is much less complete. I have seen a young bird in full
wing molt in January and think that young birds renew their flight
feathers before the first spring. The first nuptial plumage is, I
believe, a nonbreeding plumage, as it is worn by birds which spend
the summer far south of the breeding range. I have seen birds in this
plumage, collected in Florida and Louisiana, in every month from April
to August. This plumage resembles the adult nuptial, but the head is
more streaked with dusky or black; and in the mantle, scapulars and
wing coverts there is a mixture of new rufous feathers and both old
and new blackish brown feathers. The sexes are recognizable in this
plumage, the males being much brighter. A complete molt in August
produces the adult winter plumage.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt, from July to October, but
mainly in August, when the wings are molted. They have a partial
prenuptial molt from February to June, mainly in March and April,
involving the body plumage, but not all the scapulars or wing coverts.
_Food._--The turnstone is mainly a maritime species and its favorite
feeding grounds are the stony and sandy beaches along the seashore and
the rocky promontories and islets on the coasts. But on its inland
migrations it finds its food on the shores and beaches of the larger
lakes and rivers. The turnstone derives its name from its well-known
and conspicuous habit of turning over, with its short, stout bill and
sturdy muscles, stones, shells, clods of earth, seaweed, and other
objects in search for the dainty morsels of animal food that it finds
beneath them. If the object is not too large the bird stoops down and
overturns it with a quick jerk of the head and neck; but against a
larger obstacle it places its breast and pushes with all its strength;
it is surprising to see how large a stone or clod it can move. It also
has a peculiar habit of rooting like a pig in piles of seaweed or in
the open sand. Windrows of seaweed and other rubbish are generally full
of sand fleas and various worms and insects and their larvae, where
the turnstones and other waders find an abundant feast. Frank T. Noble
(1904) has described this very well, as follows:
He would select a likely spot on the loosely packed moss
and go at his work with a vim and rapidity entirely
different from the other species. Underneath the bits of
weed, moss, and fragments of shell his sharp upturned bill
would swiftly go and a perfect shower of these would soon
be falling in front and beside him. Finding a morsel to his
taste he would devour it in much less time than it takes to
relate it, and the rooting and tossing of the bits into the
air would continue. At times quite sizeable fragments of
shell and pieces of moss more than an inch in length would
be thrown fully 7 or 8 inches above the bird’s head, and
this he would keep up, with scarcely an instant’s pause,
for a quarter of an hour and until he had excavated a pit
large enough to almost conceal his plump, mottled body.
Occasionally he would turn about in his tracks, but as a
rule he worked in one direction.
I have seen a similar method employed on a sand flat laid bare at
low tide, where four or five turnstones were feeding, accompanied by
sanderlings and peeps. The turnstones were digging holes in the wet
sand, throwing out the sand for a distance of several inches, until
the holes were big enough to admit the whole of a man’s fist and deep
enough to conceal the bird’s head and neck. Meantime the sanderlings
were standing close by and picking up some small objects thrown
out, until driven away by savage attacks of the turnstone. On close
examination I found a number of small, black snails and other minute
mollusks in the sand thrown out. The stomach of one shot contained only
the minute mollusks and some coarse sand.
Doctor Stejneger (1885) found turnstones feeding in large numbers on
the killing grounds in the Commander Islands, “where thousands of
putrified carcasses of the slain fur seals swarm with myriads of the
white larvae of the flesh fly,” on which they grow very fat. Francis H.
Allen tells me he has seen them feeding on rocks which are bare only at
low tide and covered with barnacles. One that he watched--
sometimes simply picked its food up from among the
barnacles and rockweed, and sometimes it hammered away in
one spot like a woodpecker before getting its morsel. The
object hammered was evidently fixed. After the bird had
flown, I visited the spot and found many empty barnacle
shells--empty of barnacles, that is--some entirely empty
and others containing small snail-like mollusks with
dark-colored shells.
On the coast of South Carolina I have seen turnstones feeding on the
beds of coon oysters and have watched them busily engaged in chasing
the small fiddler crabs on the muddy banks of tidal creeks and on the
mud lumps; they had to run very fast to catch the spry little animals
and probably had to pick out the smallest ones. Mr. Wayne (1910) says:
“On Capers Island it frequents live oak trees which are covered with
small mussels, upon which it eagerly feeds. If some of the mussels
happen to be on an inclined limb the birds walk, instead of flying, to
reach them. I have seen as many as four of these, one behind the other,
on a small limb out in the surf.”
Mr. Manniche (1910) says that just after their arrival in Greenland
the turnstones feed mainly on vegetable food; the stomach of a bird
taken on May 22 contained only remains of plants. Dr. Paul Bartsch
(1922), referring to his visit to Midway Island, writes: “It was a
decided surprise to us to find waders in bushes feeding upon berries,
and yet this was the case here. Again and again we flushed bunches of
turnstones from the dense _Scaevola_ thickets and watched them circle
about for some time, only to realight in the tops of another clump
of bushes. Specimens shot on Sand Island were filled with _Scaevola_
berries.”
C. J. Maynard (1896) says that they sometimes resort to marshes and
feed on grasshoppers. Their main food supply evidently consists of
small crustaceans, small mollusks, insects, and their larvae, all
of which they consume in large quantities and in great variety. In
Massachusetts it is sometimes called the “horse-foot snipe,” because of
its fondness for the eggs of the horse-foot crab. John T. Nichols tells
me that it scratches up the eggs by “jumping in the air and striking
with both its feet at once into the sand, thus making a hole about 3
inches deep and 1½ inches across.”
Dr. Alexander Wetmore contributes the following interesting notes:
The greatest surprise came when on Laysan Island it was
found that these and other shore birds were persistent
enemies of the sooty and gray-backed terns, as they
destroyed the eggs of the terns at every opportunity. For
the first few days when turnstones were seen greedily
eating terns’ eggs I supposed that they were merely
finishing eggs that had been opened by other birds, but
on further observation found that these shore birds were
bold marauders that drove their bills into the eggs of
terns at every opportunity and were only prevented from
attacking the nests of boobies and man-o-war birds by the
fact that the shell of the egg in these species was so
hard that they could not break it. As we moved through the
great colonies of sooty terns the birds near at hand rose
before us from their eggs, often communicating the alarm
to neighbors so that at times clouds of birds arose to
fill the air. At our heels, 15 or 20 feet behind us, came
little groups of turnstones well aware that this uproar
among the sharp-beaked terns meant unprotected nests, where
they could attack the eggs with impunity. The turnstones
ran quickly about driving their bills into the eggs without
the slightest hesitation, breaking open the side widely and
feeding eagerly on the contents, sometimes two or three
gathering for an instant to demolish one egg and then
with this one half consumed running on to attack another.
The havoc wrought among the terns was so great that we
forbade the sailors from approaching the colonies, and
made it a rule among the naturalists to keep away except
when necessity for some observation made it imperative to
disturb the birds.
The densely packed colonies of aggressive sooty terns were
open to attack mainly along the borders except when the
birds were disturbed, but the little scattered groups of
gray-backed terns (_Sterna lunata_) on the open beaches
were entirely at the mercy of the turnstones, so that
it seemed that the gentle terns could not hope for a
successful nesting until the close of May carried the horde
of their marauding persecutors away to northern homes.
So bold were the shore birds that on one occasion I saw
two actually push aside the feathers on the sides of the
incubating tern, drag her egg from beneath her breast, and
proceed to open and devour it within 6 inches of the nest.
The tern remained in incubating pose, plainly troubled by
such unexpected boldness but seemingly not comprehending
its portent, nodding her head with that of her mate
standing beside her, and finally reaching out to draw the
half-empty shell of her treasure again beneath her, while
the robbers, temporarily satisfied, pattered away in search
of other prey. On several occasions when, in walking along
the beaches above high-tide mark I flushed gray-backed
terns from their nests, I saw that they carried with
them as they flew away shells of broken eggs, which not
understanding that they had been destroyed they had covered
while the hardening albumen flowing over the outside of the
shell had glued the whole to their feathers.
The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain contributes the following notes on the food
of this species:
As it is almost invariably found near the coast the food
is chiefly marine in character: Mollusca, chiefly small
univalves such as _Litorina_ (L. Florence records 134
opercula of small molluscks); small Crustacea, especially
Gammaridae; A. H. Clark records fry of a small fish
(_Sicydium plumieri_) up to 1½ inches in length; insects,
including Coleoptera, Diptera (_Tipulidae_ and larvae of
_Chironomidae_), Lepidoptera (_Argynnis charidea_ and
_Dasychira groenlandica_) recorded by H. C. Hart and
_Hymenoptera_. Also Arachnida and Acaridea (Feilden). Also
some vegetable matter (seeds of _Draba alpina_, pieces of
seaweed, etc.).
_Behavior._--When migrating turnstones fly in large flocks by
themselves or with black-bellied plovers, often in immense flocks;
at such times they usually fly high. But, while sojourning on the
way, they are usually in small numbers and very often seen singly.
One or two birds are often associated with mixed flocks or scattered
gatherings of semipalmated plover, sanderlings, or other small waders.
Their flight is strong, swift, and steady, usually direct, but
sometimes in a semicircle, out from the shore and back again; when
not traveling they generally fly low. There is something peculiar
about their flight which can be recognized at a long distance, but I
can not describe it satisfactorily. They are essentially shore birds,
frequenting the stony, rocky, or sandy beaches of the seashore or
the larger lakes. They are not particularly shy, and sometimes very
tame. When they first alight they stand and survey the landscape
until sure that they are safe. They then mingle freely with the other
small waders, feeding unconcernedly, and treating their companions
with indifference until one comes too near. Then the turnstone shows
its jealous and pugnacious disposition; it will allow no competition,
in the spot where it is feeding, from another bird, even of its own
species, but with lowered head, drooping wings, and hunched up back
it rushes at the intruder in a threatening attitude and perhaps gives
him a few jabs with its sharp bill. Many a miniature cockfight or sham
battle is enacted and the turnstone is generally the aggressor, though
once I saw a sanderling drive away a turnstone. It appears like a big
bully that is attracted to the feast that others have found and then is
unwilling to share it with them.
Turnstones can swim well and probably alight on the water to rest while
making long flights over the ocean. Dr. Donald B. MacMillan (1918) saw
“a large flock alight upon the water in Kennedy Channel.” They love
to bathe in shallow water, squatting down and fluttering their wings,
sometimes partly rolling over; then they spend much time preening and
dressing their pretty plumage. N. B. Moore says in his notes that “this
species alights on the dead branches of mangroves, stumps, and stakes
that stand in the water near the shore from 2 to 6 feet above it and
sits in the manner of a Carolina dove.”
_Voice._--John T. Nichols has contributed the following on the ordinary
notes of the turnstone:
The common flight note of this species is an unloud
polysyllabic one, something like a cackle, which does not
carry far. It is usually given by birds that are leaving
the vicinity, but not so frequently heard at other times
as are the flight notes of various species. This note
is sometimes three syllabled, _ketakek_, or may be of a
single syllable, _kek_, on taking wing. A much rarer, loud,
plover-like _kik-kyu_ has been heard from a turnstone when
coming to decoys or flying along the edge of favorable
marshes. The cackle of the turnstone is almost impossible
to imitate, but they will decoy readily to a whistled
imitation of the cry of their associate the black-bellied
plover.
The song of the turnstone as heard on its breeding grounds few have
been privileged to hear. Mr. Brandt calls it “a loud but not unpleasant
note, rapidly repeated--_kye-ute-cat-tat-tah_.” Mr. Jourdain has
given us, under courtship, his impressions of it and those of Messrs.
Trevor-Battye and Paget-Wilkes.
_Field marks._--The turnstone is a conspicuous and well-marked
bird, not likely to be mistaken for anything else. It is a stout,
short-legged bird with a short neck and a short, straight bill. In its
brilliant spring plumage the white head, black throat, red legs, and
rufous back are unique field marks. But the best field marks, most
conspicuous in the nuptial plumage, but present in all plumages, are
the five white stripes on the upper surface, which show very plainly
as the bird flies away; these are a broad central stripe on the back,
separated by a black patch on the rump from the white area in the tail,
a narrow stripe on the outer edge of the scapulars and a band across
the wing on the secondaries and primaries. Unfortunately for observers
on the Pacific coast, the black turnstone has somewhat similar white
stripes, but the pattern is a little different.
_Fall._--Adult turnstones begin to leave their summer homes in
Greenland about the middle of July, with the knots and sanderlings,
and before the end of August the last of the young birds have left.
Lucien M. Turner obtained an adult from Davis Inlet on July 25; but
the species apparently avoids Ungava, for the only bird he saw there
was a young male taken on August 20. Probably the birds which breed
in western Greenland migrate coastwise along the Labrador coast and
Nova Scotia to New England. We saw the first turnstones at Cape Sable,
Nova Scotia, on July 30 and 31; but my earliest record for adults
in Massachusetts is on August 1; adults are common here all through
August; the young birds come along late in August, and I have seen them
here as late as October 12.
There is a heavy migration down the west coast of Hudson Bay. Edward A.
Preble (1902) saw the first turnstones at Fort Churchill on July 30;
and on August 10 to 13 he “observed many small flocks about 25 miles
south of Cape Eskimo”; August 21 to 26 he saw “many flocks daily.” From
the Hudson Bay region the main flight seems to be southeastward through
the Great Lakes region to the Atlantic coast. It seems to be very rare
in the fall west of eastern Manitoba and Ohio; and it extends as far
east as the Bermudas and the West Indies.
Some of the birds which breed in Alaska migrate down the Pacific
coasts of North and South America at about the same dates as the
Atlantic coast birds; but large numbers pass down the Asiatic coast,
through Japan and China, to islands in the Southern Hemisphere. Doctor
Stejneger (1885) says that in the Commander Islands during the latter
part of July large flocks return from the north.
From this time until late autumn enormous masses of
them may be seen on the killing grounds, near the seal
rookeries, where thousands of putrified carcasses of the
slain fur seals swarm with myriads of the white larvae of
the flesh fly, upon which the pretty turnstones feed and
grow exceedingly fat. At sunset they retire to the beach,
where they pass the night, not, however, without having
performed a soldierlike drill by flying up and down the
endless tundra, now in full body, now again in detached
divisions, and with admirable precision turning and
maneuvering as if obeying the command of a leading officer.
As to the migration on the Pribilof Islands, William Palmer (1899)
writes:
On July 12, 1890, I saw probably the first bird that landed
on St. Paul during the fall migration. From that date they
daily increased rapidly until by the end of July they
swarmed everywhere. They reach the island by way of the
northeastern shore and in straggling flocks or singly fly
southward through the island during the day, banking up in
large numbers when the village killing ground is reached.
They spread out on the slopes, resting on the rocks and
little hillocks during the day. They soon find the feast
awaiting them on the killing ground, and the marks of their
work around nearly every seal carcass is soon noticeable.
As the water disappears by soakage and evaporation in the
village pond they turn up the black sand in thousands of
little hillocks, each with a narrow depression made by
their bill beside it. At low tide the lagoon beaches are
a favorite resting and feeding place. By the end of July
many become so fat that they are run down and captured by
the young Aleuts. Their departure from St. Paul is quite a
feature of the avifaunan exhibition. About 6 in the evening
a small flock of perhaps 40 birds will rise into the air
from about the village pond and uttering loud, shrill cries
will fly up to near the head of the lagoon. Here making a
wide sweep they return, gathering fresh recruits on their
way, until the vicinity of the pond is again reached.
Sweeping around in a constantly ascending course they
return up the lagoon, and turning once more, screaming as
they go, and adding to their numbers, they make a straight
course high over the village hill and on out to sea over
the reef point. This invariably took place every evening
during the latter part of my stay on the island. It was
always the rule that a dense fog bank hung all around
the island at that time, so that even the reef point was
not visible, but the birds went into the fog without the
slightest hesitation. They left their landmarks behind.
Several flocks averaging about a hundred birds left nearly
every evening from the end of July until I left on August
10. The first arrivals on the island were always adults;
the young were not noted for at least 10 days. According
to Elliott they all leave the islands after the 10th of
September.
Many of these birds must make the 2,000-mile flight over the ocean from
the Commander or Aleutian Islands to the Hawaiian Islands. They have
repeatedly been seen in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of
miles from land. This does not seem so remarkable, now that we know
that they can alight and rest on the water and rise from it easily.
They must go a long time without food or find a very scanty supply of
it, as it must take 40 or 50 hours to make the trip. But Dr. Henry W.
Henshaw (1902) says that some of the first arrivals on these islands,
which he shot about the middle of August, “were all of them plump and
in fine order for the table.”
_Game._--The turnstone has never attained great importance as a game
bird, though it was formerly counted in the list of “big birds” in the
gunner’s bag. It was plump and generally fat, so that it made a good
table bird. It has a variety of local names, such as chicken plover,
calico bird, brant bird, etc. It decoys well to almost any decoys and,
although its own note is difficult to imitate, it will respond readily
to the call of its favorite companion, the black-bellied plover.
_Winter._--The ruddy turnstone spends the winter on the coasts of
the southern States and on both coasts of South America, from South
Carolina to Brazil and from southern California to Chile. The larger,
Old World form, _interpres_, apparently does not winter anywhere in
the Western Hemisphere, but occupies the coasts of southern Europe and
Asia, much of Africa, some of the oceanic islands, and Australia. If we
are to recognize the Pacific form, _oahuensis_, there is yet much to
be learned about the limits of its winter and summer ranges and where
it intergrades with _interpres_. The island of Oahu in the Hawaiian
Islands is the type locality of _oahuensis_; and it probably has a wide
range among Pacific islands.
Dr. Alexander Wetmore says in his notes:
In the remote islands of the Hawaiian bird reservation the
turnstone is common during the period of northern winter,
and a few sterile or injured individuals may remain through
the summer. Though common along the sandy beaches and the
shores of lagoons, as is usual, at times they exhibited
curious habits, as on Ocean Island they ran back from
the open shore beneath the thickets of beach magnolia
(_Scaevola_), penetrating the entire island in cover as
dense as that ordinarily chosen by woodcock. It was always
a surprise when one, attracted by some sound, flew up from
under the bushes and perched on a dead branch to look at
me. On Midway turnstones ran about on the lawns at the
cable station like robins, with so domestic and contented
an air that it was at times difficult to recall that they
were here merely as transients, and that soon they would be
nesting in arctic tundras.
Charles Barrett writes to me from Australia, as follows:
One of our most interesting summer visitors, the turnstone
frequents open beaches on the mainland generally in small
flocks, and also favors reefs and coral strands among the
tropical and subtropical islands. When camped, with other
members of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union, on
Masthead Island, Capricorn Group, Queensland, in October,
1910, I observed many turnstones on the white coral-sand
beach. Apparently, with waders of other species, they had
recently arrived, after the long flight from their breeding
grounds. They were active enough, but in poor condition.
During migration, they can have little chance to obtain
food, and the strain of flying thousands of miles affects
even the healthiest birds. But they obtain abundance of
food in their Austral haunts, and soon become plump again.
Many localities in Australia are admirably suited to the
turnstone’s needs, and it is not a rare bird with us,
indeed, on islands of the Great Barrier Reef, northeastern
Queensland, it may be termed a common species.
W. B. Alexander tells me that the turnstone is “a fairly common visitor
to Australian coasts. My earliest record is of a pair seen on the beach
at Oyster Cay, Great Barrier Reef, North Queensland, on August 27,
1925, and my latest record a pair on the estuary of the Lost River on
the south coast of Western Australia on April 25, 1914.”
DISTRIBUTION
ARENARIA INTERPRES INTERPRES
_Range._--Mainly in the Eastern Hemisphere.
_Breeding range._--The turnstone breeds on the Arctic coasts of both
hemispheres, but its exact status in North America is still somewhat
indefinite. The known breeding range extends from probably Greenland
(Disco Bay, Tuctoo Valley, and Bowdoin Bay); east to Iceland; Norway
(Smolen Islands); Sweden; Lapland; Finland; Nova Zembla; Siberia
(Balagansk, and Plover Bay); Kamchatka; probably the Commander Islands;
and Alaska (St. Lawrence Island, St. Michaels, Takshagemut, Port
Clarence, probably Cape Lowenstern and Point Barrow).