carefully analyzed, but it apparently consists of small marine animals
such as barnacles, slugs, small mollusks, and crustaceans, such as are
eaten by surf birds and other turnstones. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer
(1918) mentioned one, taken in Alaska in May, that had been feeding on
heath berries. They quote Bradford Torrey (1913), as to the method of
feeding, as follows:
They were feeding in three ways. Sometimes they followed
the receding breaker, gleaning from the surface, as it
seemed, such edibles as it had washed in. Mostly, however,
they busied themselves upon the wet sand just above the
last reach of the falling tide.
Once they found a place where the shrimps or prawns were
evidently more plentiful than elsewhere, and it was amusing
to see how eagerly they worked, each determined to get its
full share of the plunder. Thrusting their short, stout
bills into the sand, they drew out their squirming prey,
dropped it on the sand, picked it up and shook it, and
dropped it again, till finally they had it in condition
for swallowing. These manoeuvers they repeated, all in
desperate competitive haste, till the beach within a
circle of a few feet in circumference was thickly dotted
with minute hillocks of sand, such as I should never have
attributed to the work of any bird, had it not been done
before my eyes. Then the supply seemed to be exhausted, and
they moved on in search of another bonanza.
At other times they resorted to patches of seaweed lying
here and there a little higher on the beach, turning
them bottom side up, or brushing them aside, to feast on
such small game as had taken shelter underneath. Their
action here was like that of a dog when he buries a bone
by pushing the earth over it with his nose. They lowered
their heads, and with more or less effort according to
circumstances accomplished their purpose. If the obstacle
proved too heavy to be moved in this manner, they drew
back a little and made a run at it as men do in using
a battering-ram. More than once I saw them gaining the
needed momentum by this means. They quarrelled now and then
over the business, and once two of them faced each other,
bill to bill, like gamecocks--a most unusual proceeding
among waders, firing off little fusilades of exclamations
meanwhile. The turnstones’ disagreements were of the
briefest, however, slight ebullitions of temper rather than
any actual belligerency.
_Behavior._--S. F. Rathbun has sent me the following notes on the
behavior of this species:
The tide was just turning from flood, the time being about
3 p. m. On the rocks of the jetty whose top at the edge of
the beach was just above the water’s surface and at times
submerged by incoming waves, was a small flock of black
turnstones numbering about 30. At first the birds would not
allow a close approach but as we slowly neared them would
take wing and, then coming together in close formation,
circle in unison, rising and falling, close to the water’s
surface to soon return and alight on the tops of the nearly
submerged rocks. It was a beautiful sight to see them in
flight as then the black and white of their plumage was
strongly in contrast. After a short time the birds allowed
a much closer approach for on one occasion we stood within
20 feet of the flock. As the tide receded much more of the
surface of the rocks became exposed, although at times
the waves dashed completely over them, and whenever this
occurred it forced the turnstones to take wing. Sometimes
one of the birds would be caught by an incoming wave and
would then emerge in flight from the water, scattering the
spray in all directions. But the rapid recession of the
tide soon gave plenty of ground to search for food and in
this all the birds became busily engaged. Some of the birds
while so doing would climb the very abrupt surface of the
rocks, clinging to the moss, which adhered, while examining
with their bills the crevices of the rocks and also the
moss for crustaceans and minute molluscs. At times one or
more would rest on the side of a rock in perfect repose and
evidence that a few were paired was seen by the fact that
two often persisted in remaining in company.
One thing proved somewhat amusing to us, that although
during the time the birds had been feeding they were
repeatedly drenched by spray from the waves striking the
rocks, when they finally ceased to feed a few at odd times
would drop into the shallow water at the base of the rocks
to bathe by dashing it over themselves, following which
they would dabble about.
Mr. Brandt says in his notes:
Among the shore birds breeding along the coast of Bering
Sea there is none more interesting and fascinating than
this black and white turnstone. When the mud about the
edges of the ponds and tidal sloughs begins to soften,
and the accumulated snow water starts to move, this bird
appears enlivening the bleak, cheerless marshes with its
loud-toned cries and butterfly-like appearance. In the
lowland area it is the commonest shore bird, and its
contrastive black and white figure is doubly conspicuous,
because it resents intrusion of its haunts and sallies
forth to meet the approaching stranger; whereas the rest
of the shore-bird tribe found there either skulk away
or exhibit indifference. As the Pacific godwit is the
self-appointed guardian of the upland tundra, so the black
turnstone patrols the lowlands, often to the dismay of the
hunter or the irritation of the ornithologist. In spite
of its chunky body and comparatively short wings, it is
gifted with elegance and swiftness of flight. It does
not, like the phalarope, afford an inviting target for
the young native hunters, because not only does it scold
on the wing, but it also moves so nervously while on the
ground that it is not quiet there even for a fraction of a
second. No doubt the hunting jaegers consider it the pest
of the flats, for while passing through its domain, these
freebooters are usually being annoyingly followed by one or
more of these fiery and courageous defenders.
Mr. Turner (1886) says that--
The sea-otter hunters, both native and white, detest this
bird, as it frequents the places most resorted to by marine
mammals and is certain to give alarm to the otter or seal
which the hunter is endeavoring to approach.
_Voice._--Doctor Nelson (1887) says: “It has a habit of circling around
the intruder, during the nesting season, with a fine, clear, peeping
cry like the syllables _weet, weet too-weet_, as it moves restlessly
about. When disturbed in the vicinity of its nest it also has a sharp
_peet, weet, weet_, very similar to the well known note of the spotted
sandpiper.” Mr. Turner (1886) says that when alarmed and “taking flight
they utter a rattling scream” which is quite startling.
_Field marks._--When standing the black turnstone may be recognized by
its uniformly dark head, neck, and chest, above a white belly; it lacks
the white throat of the turnstone, and its upper parts appear all dark.
But when flying it shows white patches quite similar to those of the
turnstone, a patch in the center of the back, the base of the tail, a
stripe in the scapulars and a broad band across the wings; there is
rather more white in the wing than in the turnstone and the black tips
extend along only the outer half of the wing; the surf bird has a much
narrower white stripe in the wing.
_Fall._--Doctor Nelson (1887) says, of the departure of these birds
from Alaska: “In autumn they move gradually to the southward, until by
the last of August they become rarer, and during the first half of
September all have gone with the exception of an occasional straggler
found along the seashore.” The migration extends down the coast as far
as Lower California.
_Winter._--Carl Lien regards them as common winter residents on
Destruction Island, off the coast of Washington. He says, in his notes
that they “begin to arrive about July 26 and leave in the spring the
first week in May. They confine themselves entirely to the reefs
and are very sociable, keeping up a continual chatter. The Aleutian
sandpiper and a surf bird or two will nearly always be found among
them. About 75 or 100 birds winter here.”
A. B. Howell (1917), referring to the islands off the coast of southern
California, says that “this is by far the most abundant shore bird on
the islands, much more so than on the mainland, occurring in flocks of
as many as 30 individuals, and frequenting the rockiest shores.”
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Pacific coast of North America, casual in northeastern
Siberia.
_Breeding range._--So far as known, the black turnstone breeds only
on the Alaskan coast, the breeding range appearing to extend from
Chichagof Island on the south, north to probably Montague Island,
Ugashik, Nushagak, Hooper Bay, the Yukon Valley, St. Michael, Cape
Prince of Wales, and probably the Kobuk River.
At this season it also has been detected on Wrangel Island, and Herald
Island (Nelson) but is not known to breed, while nonbreeders have
been noted south on the coast at British Columbia, Skidegate; Oregon,
Yaquina Bay; California, Farallon Islands, Monterey Bay, Point Pinos,
and San Miguel Island; and Lower California, Los Coronados Islands.
_Winter range._--The winter range of the black turnstone extends north
nearly to the breeding grounds and but little south of the southern
limit of the nonbreeders. They have been noted in winter north rarely
to Alaska (Craig and Howkan). Also in southern British Columbia
(Victoria); Washington (Bellingham Bay, Smith Island, Dungeness, and
Clallam Bay); Oregon (Yaquina Bay and Netarts Bay); California (Eureka,
Tomales Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, San Miguel Island, Santa Cruz
Island, San Pedro Bay, Santa Catalina Island, San Clemente Island, and
San Diego County); and lower California (San Quintin Bay, probably San
Geronimo Island, Magdalena Bay, and Santa Margarita Island).
_Migration._--Because of the presence of individuals throughout the
year in practically the entire range of the species, migration data are
not significant.
The following dates of spring arrival are, however, available: Alaska,
Admiralty Island, April 17; Juneau, April 29; Forrester Island, May
6; Bethel, May 12; Craig, May 15; and Nulato, May 16. Dates of fall
departure from Alaska are Nushagak, September 22; Homer, September 26;
St. Lazaria Island, September 30; and Wrangel, November 4.
_Casual records._--On August 15, 1912, a flock of 20 was observed at
Chaun Bay, northeastern Siberia (Thayer and Bangs). A specimen in the
collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences was presumed to
have been obtained in India, but the occurrence has been challenged
(Hartert) on the basis that proof is lacking that the specimen was
actually there collected. The record accordingly is eliminated for lack
of evidence.
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 96 records, May 28 to July 5; 48 records, May 31
to June 1.
Family HAEMATOPODIDAE Oyster catchers
HAEMATOPUS OSTRALEGUS Linnaeus
EUROPEAN OYSTER CATCHER
_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_
HABITS
This is another species whose claim to a place in the American list
rests on its occurrence in Greenland, but, rather curiously, all the
occurrences are recorded from the west coast and not from the east
side, as might have been expected. Herbert Winge, in 1898, was able
to record six specimens obtained at various localities between 1844
and 1898, as well as one reported in the autumn of 1893. As it is a
breeding species in Iceland, its occurrence in Greenland from time to
time may well be expected.
_Courtship._--As the oyster catcher is an extremely striking bird,
with its strongly contrasted plumage of black and white, red bill,
and flesh-colored feet, and is also by no means scarce and very
noisy, its breeding habits challenge attention, and a good deal has
been recorded on the subject by Edmund Selous, Seton Gordon, William
Farren, and others. It is on the whole a sociable species, and one
peculiar characteristic is that in the middle of the breeding season
it is not unusual to find three birds together, either resting or in
flight, without any open signs of hostility. According to Selous, these
associations are often composed of two males and one female, and as he
observed them together not only in the early part of the pairing time
but also late in the season, it would seem that, except perhaps just
in the height of sexual activity, the social instinct is predominant.
The following account is taken from William Farren’s (1910) description
of the “Piping parties”:
The piping of the males depends on the presence of the
female. Another male in the neighborhood hears the note,
becomes interested, pipes a little, and then flies direct
to where the performance is taking place. He places himself
by the side of the other male and the two pipe together to
the female. Generally unresponsive, the female may walk
away, when she is followed by the two males, who continue
their serenade. In one instance observed by Mr. Selous,
the female flew down to a lower shelf of rock and the two
males piped down to her from above; and when at last she
flew away they, with a few single querulous notes, assumed
their ordinary attitude and walked disconsolately about.
The flight of the female always ended the performance.
Mr. Selous (1901), in describing the piping serenade of the male,
states that when he begins he faces her, but “having once begun he
seems more enthralled by his own music than by her and will turn from
side to side or even right round and away from her, as though in the
rhythmical sway of his piping.” This remarkable song is audible a long
way off and is described well by Selous as “an earpiercing clamor.” He
writes it as “_kee kee kee kee kervee kervee kervee kervee kervee_”
becoming fainter in its later stages and ending in a long-drawn out
quavering trill. In some cases, according to Selous, the female also
pipes, and one pair, presumably already mated, will chase another
pair, all four piping together. He also instances a case in which an
unattached male approached close to where a hen was sitting; she left
the nest, and, joining her mate, the two advanced on the intruder,
piping a warning, and put him to flight.
Perhaps the fullest study of the subject is contained in a paper by J.
S. Huxley and F. A. Montague (1925). Here the piping is described thus:
Any number of birds, from one to seven or eight or possibly
more, may take part in it. Typically, what occurs is as
follows: One or more birds begin the loud characteristic
piping which typically again is given in a special
attitude, the head and bill directed straight downward,
the bill held open and very slightly vibrated, the neck
thrust forward so that the shoulders show up with rather
a horsey look. Sometimes, but not always, the whole body
is bobbed up and down at intervals in the way common to so
many wading birds, but not very markedly. Frequently, but
again not always, the performers trot rapidly round when
piping, very often close side by side and usually in a
serpentine course, with short quick steps. Sometimes one of
the performers will suddenly turn right round through 180°
in the middle of its performance; one I saw turn through
the complete 360° in two spasms.
Huxley and Montague have shown that this piping performance has not
only a sexual significance, but that it also plays a number of other
rôles in the bird’s life, as, for instance, in unilateral courtship,
mutual courtship, aggression, sexual jealousy, territorial jealousy,
and probably social excitement--that is, under all forms of strong
emotion except fear. Details are given of observed piping by large
parties, two pairs, threes (the commonest form), “twos” and “ones.”
Another courtship activity recorded in the same paper is the
slow-butterflylike flight with the wing beats at about half the
ordinary pace carried out by a solitary bird. Coition is apparently
preceded by no preliminary ceremony whatever, the initiative coming
from the male, the female standing quite still and giving no visible
indication of readiness to pair. For a fuller discussion on the origin
and meaning of the piping ceremony the reader is referred to the paper
by Huxley and Montague (1925).
_Nesting._--There is considerable variation in the nesting sites of
this species. Among sand dunes it is often to be met with on the summit
of a dune, a mere hollow in the sand. On shingle banks it may be among
pebbles, sometimes lined with small white stones or shells, obviously
brought by the bird. Other nests are placed in natural recesses of
rock, on grass land, when at times quite a good-sized nest is built of
any wrack or rubbish available. While in many cases the nest is placed
close to the shore it is frequently found in Scotland by the sides of
the rivers far inland, and on the continent, in level grassy meadows
in the reclaimed marshes of Holland. Exceptionally nests have been
recorded from a larch wood on an island, among bracken, etc.
_Eggs._--The normal number of eggs is three, but two are also commonly
found, and in some districts sets of four are not at all uncommon.
Exceptionally five and six eggs have been found together. As is
usually the case where three eggs are normal, they are oval rather
than pyriform in shape and in color are yellowish stone or ochreous,
boldly marked with spots, streaks, and scrawls of blackish brown and
some ashy shell marks. There are also variations with warm rufous
tinge in the ground color, or very rarely with a pale bluish ground or
even pure white. Some sets are boldly blotched with sepia black. The
measurements of 100 British eggs, made by the writer, average 57 by
40.07 millimeters; the eggs showing the for extremes measure =70.1= by
37.4, 62.1 by =48.9=, =51.6= by 40.4, and 62.6 by =35= millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation is carried on by both sexes, but probably the
female takes the greater share, and she has been observed to sit for
three or four hours without changing. The period is estimated at 21
days (Paynter), 23 to 24 days from finding full set (W. Evans), and 24
days (Faber). Probably the latter estimates are more correct. The young
when hatched remain a day or two in the nest and are attended by their
parents for at least five weeks after hatching, according to J. M.
Dewar (1908). R. H. Brown, however, estimates it as about 29 days.
_Plumages._--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical
Handbook of British Birds edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).
_Food._--Chiefly marine mollusca; univalves, such as limpets
(_Patella_), small whelks (_Buccinium_) and periwinkles (_Litorina_)
and bivalves, including mussels (_Mytilus edulis_), cockles
(_Cardium_), etc. Also annelida, earthworms, and sandworms; crustacea
(shrimp, etc.), and insects, including Coleoptera, Diptera and their
larvae (especially Tipulidae), Lepidoptera (larvae and pupae of
Noctuidae); occasionally Holothurians and some vegetable matter (grass
seeds, grains, etc.).
_Behavior._--The feeding habits of the oyster catcher have been
exhaustively studied by J. M. Dewar, who has given the results of
his investigations in a paper in the Zoologist for 1908. Careful
examination of the shells of mussels showed that about 78 per cent were
opened by means of a stab from the bill through the dorsal border. As
in their normal position this is the exposed portion this is perhaps
natural, but only those which have the valves slightly opened are
vulnerable and the weakest point in the shell is on the ventral border,
which is rarely exposed. The best feeding time is when the scalps are
first exposed by the ebb, before the mussels have closed their shells
and again when the tide is rising and the shells are just beginning to
open again. When the tide is up the birds rest in long lines, head to
wind. The flight of the oyster catcher is peculiar and characteristic,
the wings being rapidly moved within a very short arc, so that they
seem to be vibrated at the tips.
_Enemies._--The oyster catcher has few natural enemies, though no doubt
occasionally a nest is destroyed by Corvidae (hooded crows and carrion
crows or rooks).
_Fall._--The Misses Rintoul and Baxter have observed a tendency to the
renewal of spring display during the autumn months. The Shetland birds
move southward in September and do not return until March.
_Winter._--During the winter months the oyster catcher is generally to
be met with in flocks, easily recognized by their striking coloration
and characteristic notes. The wild ringing sound of their calls, a
clear _kle-eep_, coming from hundreds of throats at once, is, as T. A.
Coward remarks, as delightful as it is harmonious.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--Iceland, the Faroes, the British Isles, and the
coasts of northern Europe from northwest Spain and Brittany to the
Baltic, and along the Scandinavian coast to Archangel, probably also
in the Black and Caspian Seas, south to Macedonia and Asia Minor.
Replaced by allied forms in Asia and Japan.
_Winter range._--Some winter in Iceland, many in the British Isles, but
the main winter quarters lie in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the
Persian Gulf, the African coast south to Mozambique, and India.
_Spring migration._--At the Straits of Gibraltar the passage northward
takes place in April and May, according to Farrer, and in Malta in
April, but in the eastern Mediterranean it is apparently rather
earlier, for in Greece one has been noted at the end of March, and
Lindermeyer gives mid-April as the main passage date. At Corfu it has
been seen on March 20. Danish birds arrive on their breeding grounds
late in March or early in April, and in southern Sweden in March while
in Finland not till late April.
_Fall migration._--Gaetke noted many young birds on Heligoland in
August and migrants have been recorded for Greece in mid-August. The
autumn movement is more prolonged than the spring passage, owing to the
presence of young as well as adults, so that at Malta birds have been
recorded from August to November. The main passage at Tangier takes
place in October.
_Casual records._--Winge’s Greenland records include two dated
April 19, 1885, near Nanortalik, and one on June 16, 1888, north of
Jakobshavn. It has also been noted on Jan Mayen (A. G. Nathorst and
L. C. Masters); once north of Bear Island, July 28, 1910; and once in
Spitsbergen, July, 1906 (Mathey-Dupraz).
_Egg dates._--From the British Islands, April 26 to June 26 (25 dates),
May 2 to 29 (14 dates), June 4 to 26 (10 dates); Holland, May 11 to 25
(25 dates); Norway, June 10 to 27 (8 dates); Faroes, May 15 to 22 (3
dates).
HAEMATOPUS PALLIATUS PALLIATUS Temminck
AMERICAN OYSTER CATCHER
HABITS
The usual impression that one gets of this large and showy wader is a
fleeting glimpse of a big, black and white bird disappearing in the
distance over the hot, shimmering sands of our southern beaches. It is
one of the shyest and wildest of our shore birds, ever on the alert
to escape from danger; I have never shot one and seldom have had half
a chance to do so. Even during the breeding season when its anxiety
for its eggs or young prompts it to be less wary, it flies around the
intruder in wide circles, well beyond gun range, yelling its loud notes
of protest. It was evidently about as shy even in the days of Audubon
and Wilson, for both mentioned its wariness. It was much commoner in
those days, of course, and enjoyed a much wider distribution. Audubon
(1840) records it at Portland, Me., and as breeding on the south coast
of the Labrador Peninsula; it seems as if he must be mistaken about the
latter locality, although it is interesting to note that the European
oyster catcher breeds as far north as Russian Lapland.