Zoologi/. " St 



approached, generally ran, uttering a shrill cry, towards the nearest bank of 

 shingle or sjiell, where, being always difficult to be seen, they sometimes 

 rendered then^selves still more so by crouching down. I obtained in all 

 seven specitnens, thj'ee males, and" four females; amongst which there was 

 no material difference. I conceive these birds have hitherto, by some orni- 

 , thologists, been confounded with those varieties of the ring plover which 

 are occasionally met with wanting the gorget, &c. ; but they appear to me 

 to be perfectly distinct ; the birds I met with being altogether of a lighter 

 form. I remember observing this difference particularly on seeing a Kentish 

 plover and a ring plover placed in the same case, as a pair of the latter 

 species, in the shop of a noted preserver of specimens of natural history, 

 in London. Hoping that this may lead to some further elucidation, I am. 

 Sir, yours, &c. — George Clayton. Rochester, September 19. 1831. 



Identity of the Green Sandpiper and the Wood Sandpiper. — Sir, The 

 question whether the green and wood sandpipers are the same species 

 seems, from Mr. Rennie's edition of Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, 

 to be undecided; but, as a specimen has just come under my notice which 

 appears to me to clear up this difficulty, I shall offer no apology for sending 

 you a description of it. The length from the bill to the tail is 10 in. ; to 

 the end of the toes, llfin.; breadth, 17in. ; length from the knee to the 

 toe, 2|in.; thigh joint to the toe, 5iin. The bill measures l|in. from the 

 corner of the mouth, and is very slender ; the upper mandible, which is 

 black, and slightly curved at the point, is a little longer than the lower 

 one, which is a dark green at the base, and black at the point ; a dark 

 streak extends from the base of the upper mandible to the corner of the 

 eye, and above it is a patch of dirty white, intermixed, with minute dusky 

 spots ; a small circle of dirty white surrounds the eyes : the chin is white ; 

 the cheeks, throat, and forepart of the neck white, spotted with dusky, 

 with which colour a few laminae at the end of each feather are marked their 

 whole length ; the breast has a dappled stripe, of the same colour as the 

 throat running down the middle of it ; with this exception, it is white, as 

 are also the belly, vent, and under tail coverts. 



The crown of the head and hinder part of the neck are a dingy brown, 

 which, on the neck, has a shade of ash colour ; the bend of the wing and 

 lesser wing coverts are brownish black; the whole upper part of the 

 plumage is of a glossy brownish green, which is spotted on the middle wing 

 coverts with minute white spots, that change to a dingy yellow on the 

 back, scapulars, and tertials, the last of which have twelve spots on the 

 outer margin of the feathers, and six on the inner one ; the tertials are 

 very long, the longest of them reaching to within a quarter of an inch of 

 the extreme top of the wing, which reaches to the end of the tail ; the 

 quill feathers are wholly black, as are also the secondaries ; the upper part 

 of the rump -is black, and each feather slightly tipped with white, which 

 forms small wavy lines on that part of the plumage; the lower part of the 

 rump and upper tail coverts are pure white ; the tail, which is even at the 

 end, consists of twelve feathers, which are barred with black and white 

 alternately. At the end of Bewick's description of the green sandpiper 

 there is a very exact representation of a cover feather of the tail, and an 

 inner wing covert, which will give a better idea of their appearance than a 

 page of letterpress. The legs are dark green, the outer toe connected with 

 the middle one by a membrane as far as the first joint; toes very slender, 

 middle one 1^ in. long. Weight 2| oz. Killed on the 17th of September, 

 1831, near Stoneyhurst. 



I have been thus minute in my description, from a wish to clear up the 

 doubt that appears to exist as to the identity of these two birds ; the one 

 I have now before me is undoubtedly the green sandpiper of Bewick, but it 

 corresponds, in so many particulars, with the wood sandpiper of Montagu, 

 and appears to combine so many of the peculiarities of each, without 

 Vol. V. — No. 23. g 



