8i2 SANDPIPER 



assigned, the Totanus or Helodromas ochropus of ornithologists, which 

 most curiously differs (so far as is known) from all others of the 

 group both in its osteology ^ and mode of nidification, the hen laying 

 her eggs in the deserted nests of other birds — Jays, Thrushes or 

 Pigeons — but nearly always at some height (from 3 to 30 feet) from 

 the ground {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, pp. 529-532). This species 

 occurs in England the whole year round, and is presumed to have 

 bred here, though the fact has never been satisfactorily proved, and 

 our knowledge of its erratic habits comes from naturalists in 

 Pomerania and Sweden ; yet in the breeding-season, even in England, 

 the cock-bird has been seen to rise high in air and perform a variety 

 of evolutions on the wing, all the while piping what, without any 

 violence of language, may be called a song. This Sandpiper is 

 characterized by its dark upper plumage, which contrasts strongly 

 with the white of the lower part of the back and gives the bird as 

 it flies away from its disturber much the look of a very large 

 House-Martin. The so-called Wood-Sandpiper, T. glareola, which, 

 though much less common, is known to have bred in England, has 

 a considerable resemblance to the species last mentioned, but can at 

 once be distinguished, and often as it flies, by the feathers of the 

 axillary plume being white barred with greyish-black, while in the 

 Green Sandpiper they are greyish-black barred with white. It is 

 an abundant bird in most parts of northern Europe, migrating in 

 winter very far to the southward. 



Of the section Tringinse the best known are the Dunlin, the 

 Knot and the Sanderling (the last to be distinguished from every 

 other bird of the group by wanting a hind toe), while the Purple 

 Sandpiper, Tringa striata or maritima is only somewhat less numerous, 

 but is especially addicted to rocky coasts. The Curlew-Sandpiper, 

 T. subarquata, appears not unfrequently, and is of especial interest 

 since its nest has never been discovered, and none can point even 

 approximately to any breeding-place for it, except it be, as Von 

 Middendorff supposed, on the tundras of the Taimyr. The Little 

 and Temminck's Stints, T. minuta and T. temmincM, are more regular 

 in their visits, and have been traced to their homes in the most 

 northern part of Scandinavia and the Russian Empire, but want of 

 space forbids more than this record of their names ; and, for the 

 same reason, no notice can be taken of many other species, chiefly 

 American, belonging to this group, with the exception of T. maculata 

 or pectoralis, concerning Avhich a few words must be said on account 

 of the extraordinary faculty, first noticed by the late Mr. Edward 

 Adams {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 130), possessed by the male of 

 puffing out its oesophagus, after the manner of a Pouter-Pigeon. 



1 It possesses only a single pair of posterior " emarginations " on its sternum, 

 in this respect resembling the Ruff. Among the Plovers and Snipes other 

 similarly exceptional cases may be found. 



