324. 1. Strepsilas Interpres, Linn. Turnstone.
Plate CCCIV. Summer and winter plumage.
Adult in summer with the bill black, feet deep orange; plumage varied with white, black, brown, and red; upper parts of the head and nape streaked with black and reddish-white; a broad band of white crossing the forehead, passing over the eyes, and down the sides of the neck, the hind part of which is reddish-white, faintly mottled with dusky; a frontal band of black curving downwards before the eye, enclosing a white patch on the lore, and meeting another black band glossed with blue, which proceeds down the neck, from the base of the lower mandible, enlarging behind the ear, covering the whole anterior part of the neck, and passing along the shoulders over the scapulars; the throat, hind part of the back, outer scapulars, upper tail-coverts, and under parts of body and wings, white; anterior smaller, wing-coverts dusky, the rest bright chestnut or brownish-orange, as are the outer webs of the inner tertiaries; alula, primary coverts, outer secondary coverts and quills blackish-brown, the inner webs becoming white towards the base; a broad band of white across the wing, including the bases of the primary quills, excepting the outer four, and the ends of the secondary coverts; shafts of primaries white; tail white, with a broad blackish-brown band towards the end, broader in the middle, the tips white; a dusky band crossing the rump. In winter, the throat, lower parts, middle of the back, upper tail-coverts, and band across the wing, white, as in summer; tail and quills also similarly coloured, but the inner secondaries destitute of red, of which there are no traces on the upper parts, they being of a dark greyish-brown colours, tipped or margined with paler; outer edges of outer scapulars, and some of the smaller wing-coverts, white; on the sides and fore part of the neck, the feathers blackish.
Male, 9, 183/4.
Not uncommon along the shores of the Southern States during winter, though the greater number remove much farther south. Breeds in high northern latitudes, Hudson's Bay, and shores of Arctic Seas. Never in the interior.
Turnstone, Tringa Interpres, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. vii. p. 32.
Strepsilas Interpres, Bonap. Syn. p. 299.
Strepsilas Interpres, Turnstone, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 371.
Turnstone or Sea Dotterel, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 30.
Turnstone, Strepsilas Interpres, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 31.
GENUS IV. HÆMATOPUS. OYSTER-CATCHER.
Bill long, slender, straight, or slightly recurvate, higher than broad at the base, extremely compressed toward the end; upper mandible with the dorsal line straight and slightly sloping at the base, somewhat convex beyond the nostrils, then straight and sloping to the point, the ridge broad and flattened as far as the prominence, afterwards extremely narrow, the sides sloping at the base, perpendicular towards the end, the edges rather sharp, the tip abrupt and wedge shaped; nasal groove long, bare; lower mandible with the angle of moderate length, the dorsal line ascending and slightly convex, the sides erect, the edges thin, the tip abrupt and wedged. Nostrils subbasal, linear, near the margin. Head of moderate size, ovate, the forehead rounded; neck of moderate length; body compact. Feet of moderate length, rather stout; tibia bare for about a fourth of its length; tarsus slightly compressed, covered all round with hexagonal scales; toes of moderate length, stout, marginate, flat beneath, webbed at the base, the outer considerably longer than the inner, the first wanting. Claws rather small, arched, moderately compressed, obtuse. Plumage generally blended, on the back compact. Wings long, pointed, the first quill longest. Tail short, nearly even, of twelve feathers. Tongue short, triangular, fleshy; œsophagus dilated into a pretty large crop; stomach oblong, muscular, with the epithelium dense and longitudinally rugous; intestine long and rather slender; cœca long and nearly cylindrical; cloaca globular.
325. 1. Hæmatopus palliatus, Temm. American Oyster-catcher.