SANDPIPER 



93 



Sandpiper, or 



Summer Snipe 



(Totanus 



hypoleucus). 



Although referred by some ornithologists to a genus 

 apart, under the name of Tringoides hypoleucus, that 

 familiar bird, the sandpiper or summer snipe, is much 

 better included in the same generic group as the 

 redshank and greenshank ; the members of that 

 group differing from the foregoing representatives of the Totaninse by 

 the length of the beak not exceeding that of the tail, and being 

 generally about equal to that of the lower segment of the leg 

 (occasionally slightly longer and more frequentl}- somewhat shorter), 

 as well as by the two 

 sexes being alike in 

 plumage. Although 

 the characters of the 

 legs and feet are 

 somewhat variable, 

 the lower segment of 

 the former has both 

 front and hind sur- 

 faces covered with 

 transverse shield-like 

 scales, and the hind- 

 toe is always present, 

 but the web between 

 the middle and outer 

 toes may be rudi- 

 mentary. The summer snipe, or common sandpiper, is a member of 

 a group of small species with the beak nearly straight, and the legs 

 short and either olive or green in colour ; this particular species 

 being distinguished by the absence of an)- white on the rump. 



The range of this very common bird includes the greater part of 

 the eastern hemisphere, the breeding-area comprising the temperate 

 regions, and the winter habitat including southern Africa and Asia 

 and Australia. To the British Isles the species is a summer-visitor, 

 breeding in the south-western counties of England, Wales, the north 

 of England, Scotland, and throughout Ireland. During the autumn- 

 migration, when its numbers are recruited by the birds of the year, 

 it is one of the most abundant of the British waders, occurring com- 

 paratively seldom on the coasts, but abundantly around inland lakes 

 or even ponds, and on the banks of rivers and estuaries, although 

 many of the islands off the Irish coast form some of its favourite 

 nesting-haunts. Its breeding-range extends as far north as the 



SANDPIPER. 



