30 BARTRA M IAN SANDPIPER.
inner coat was tinged, together with the head ot' a Libellula. Sjf:p gravcl
or other hard substances.,
The trachea moderately extended is 3 i § inches long, its transverse
diameter diminishing to The rings are unossified and extremely
thin, 105 in number; the contractor or lateral muscles feeble;
the inferior larynx simple, with .a single pair of trácheali-bronchiales,
and the usual sterno-trachealés; the bronchi of about 15 half-rings.
This individual presented a very remarkable accumulation of fat
over the abdominal and pectoral muscle*, and especially about the
furcula.
i «Mi
T U R N S T O N E .
SrilKrSIl.AS iNtBBPBÉS, IL.l.IGKB.
PLATE COCI V\ ADULT I S BTIKMEK ASD WINTEK.
THIS bird, which, in iís full vernal dress, is one of the motó; beautiful
of its family, If found along the southern1 coasts of the United
States during winter, from North Carolina to the mouth of the Sabine
River, in considerate numbers, although perhaps as many travel at
that season into Texas and Mexico, whetfé I observed it on its journey .
eastward,, from the beginning of April to the end of May 1837. I procured
many specimens in the course of my rambles along the shores of
the.Florida Keys1,1 and in the neighbourhood of | t Augustine, and have
met with it in May and June, as well as in September and October, in
almost every of our maritime shores, from Maine to Maryland.
On ilfi coast of labrador I looked for it in vain, although Dr RICHARDSON
mentions their arrival at their breeding quarters on the shores
of Hudson's Bay afid the Arctic Sea up to the seventy-fifth parallel.
In spring the Turnstone is rarely met with in fldMks exceeding five
or six individuals, but often associates with other species, such as the
Knot., the Red-backed Sandpiper, and the Tringa mbarguata. Towards
the end of autumn, however, they collect into large flocks,
and so continue düíihg the winter. I have never seen it on the
margins of rivers or lakes, but always on the shores of the sea,
although it prefers those of the extensive inlets só numerous on
our coasts. At times it rambles to considerable distances from the
beach, for I havé found it on rocky islands thirty miles from the mainland
; and 'on two occasions, whilst crossing the Atlantic, I saw several
flocks near the Groat Banks flying Swiftly, and rather close to the water
around the ships, after which they shot off toward the south-west, and
in a few minutes Were out ot' sight.. It Seems,to be a hardy bird, for
some of them remain in our Eastern Districts until severe frost prevails.
Having seen some, in the beginning of June, and in superb
plumage, on the high grounds of the Island of Grand Mannan, in the
Bay of Fundy, I supposed that they bred there, although none of my
party succeeded in discovering! 'tifeir nests. Indeed the young, as I