WOOD-SANDPIPER. 165 



weeks at a time ; in some years — for it is irregular in appear- 

 ance — I have been sure of a bird in certain places any day 

 during December, January, and February. Not only are there 

 many records for July, but it has often been suspected that 

 pairs were nesting, and there is circumstantial evidence that 

 young have been seen. Perhaps the best evidence, though 

 unfortunately second hand, is that of Mr. H. W. Robinson and 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, who believe that young were seen in West- 

 morland and Norfolk in 191 7. In Yorkshire a Green Sand- 

 piper was shot when flying down from an old nest in a tree, 

 but the gamekeeper who killed the bird had no idea that the 

 normal habit of this species is to use a deserted squirrel drey 

 or bird's nest as a platform for its eggs. Many sandpipers 

 perch on branches, but this is the only regular arboreal nester. 

 The streaked head of the Green Sandpiper is greyish brown, 

 its back and wings greenish brown with a bronze gloss and 

 numerous white spots. The upper tail-coverts are white, and 

 the central tail feathers white with broad blackish-brown bands 

 towards the tip ; the outer pair are white and those between 

 have less complete bars. In the hand the bird can be dis- 

 tinguished from the Wood-Sandpiper by its axillaries, which 

 are black with fine white chevron bars, whereas in the Wood 

 they are white with grey specks and a narrow subterminal 

 chevron. The breast and neck are greyish brown, the chin 

 and rest of the under parts white. The bill is dark brown, the 

 legs green, and the irides almost black. The white spots are 

 smaller and fewer in winter, and the under parts are purer 

 white, and in the immature bird the spots are huffish and the 

 feathers of the mantle are margined with yellowish brown. 

 Length, 9'5 ins. Wing, 5*5 ins. Tarsus, 1*25 ins. 



Wood-Sandpiper. Tringa glarcola Linn. 



The range abroad of the Wood-Sandpiper roughly corre- 

 sponds with that of the Green, but in the British Isles it is 



