_Strepsilas interpres_, the Turnstone, has the head, rump, tail, and remiges black and white, the upper parts varied with chestnut and black, the breast black, the belly white, and the feet orange, with the hind toe turned inwards. In winter the coloration is chiefly grey and white. From its extensive migrations, it is possibly the most cosmopolitan of Birds, while it breeds in Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and as near us as Denmark, though not proved to do so in Britain. In autumn and spring this lively little species frequents our muddy shores or seaweed-covered rocks, often turning over the pebbles in search of food; the note is a twitter or whistle; the nest a slightly-lined excavation under shelter of some maritime shrub or stone, containing four grey-green eggs, marked with olive-brown. _S. melanocephalus_, of the Pacific coast of North America, lacks chestnut tints. _Aphriza virgata_, the Surf-bird, a brownish species with white alar bar, rump, and abdomen, found from Alaska to Chili, may perhaps be placed here. The position of the scarce Patagonian _Pluvianellus sociabilis_, which is chiefly grey above and white below, is equally doubtful. Both species lack the hallux. _Haematopus ostralegus_, the Oyster-catcher, inhabits Europe and Central Asia, extending–as the form _H. osculans_–to China and Japan; in winter it reaches Senegambia, Mozambique, Ceylon, and South China. From the black head, neck, and mantle, white lower back, underparts, wing-bar, and base of tail, it is called the Sea-Pie; while a habit of opening mussels with the long wedge-shaped bill gives it the name of Mussel-picker. Oyster-catcher seems a misnomer, but worms, crustaceans, and so forth vary the diet. It frequents shores and inland rivers, depositing three, or rarely four, oval drab eggs, with blackish and grey markings, on sand, shingle, or rocks. {277}The scream in the breeding season is often quite deafening, but at other times these wary birds are seldom noisy. Their flight is powerful, and they can swim and dive. The bill is orange and the feet flesh-coloured in this species, as well as in _H. longirostris_ of the Moluccas, Papuasia, Australia, and New Zealand, with longer bill and entirely black primaries. _H. leucopus_ of Chili, Patagonia, and the Falklands, has a black lower back and pale feet; _H. palliatus_ (with its races _frazari_, _galapagensis_, and _durnfordi_), ranging from Nova Scotia and California to Patagonia, has a brown mantle. Of the perfectly black or brownish-black species, _H. niger_, of both coasts of the North Pacific, has pale flesh-coloured feet; _H. moquini_, of the Ethiopian Region, the Canaries, and Madeira, has them deep red; _H. ater_, found from Peru to Patagonia and the Falklands, has the scarlet bill compressed and upturned; _H. unicolor_ of Australia and New Zealand has the feet brick-red. This genus has three toes, as has the remarkable _Ibidorhynchus struthersi_, with long decurved red bill and greenish-grey