WOOD-SANDPIPER 



97 



white rump of the latter, and the black bars on the tail extend across 

 both webs of the feathers. 



SANDPIPERS FEATHERS. 



,,. , „ , . The wood-sandpiper, referred by some ornithologists 



Wood-Sandpipep , . ,. . , , ^ . _,, ^ ., 



_, , . . to a genus by itself, with the name of Rhyacophihis 



(iotanus giareoia), , , . v.- ^ -^-^ .--u ^ c \ • 



glareoia, is a bird with the same type oi colouring 



as the green sandpiper, but of rather smaller size, with a relatively 



shorter beak and longer leg, the tail being also comparatively long. 



In point of size it is somewhat larger than the common sandpiper (9 



against 7^ inches in total length), from which it is readily distinguished 



by the white rump. The breeding-range of this sandpiper extends in 



Europe from Holland and perhaps Bohemia in the south to the interior 



of Scandinavia and Lapland in the north, and thence eastwards 



through Russia and Central and northern Asia to Kamchatka, while 



its winter visiting-area embraces Africa, India, Burma, and the Malay 



Peninsula. In some parts of its European haunts it has been stated 



to arrive in April and retire in September, and young birds have been 



seen nearly full-feathered in the first half of June ; but in the marshes 



of Hungary it has been observed in flocks at the latter part of May, 



and it is stated not to reach its Arctic breeding-grounds till June. To 



the eastern and southern coasts of England it is a fairly regular visitor 



on the autumn-migration, as well as to inland waters, but on the 



western side of the country it is seldom seen, and in Ireland had only 



been obtained on four occasions, in August and September, up to the 



close of last century. In the spring-migration the species is much less 



common ; but there is evidence that in former days it occasionally 



remained to breed, a nest being recorded from Norfolk in 1846, a 



H 



