THE WOOD-TATTLERS. 275 



had laid together in the same nest." The duties of incubation 

 and the rearing of the young are left entirely to the female 

 bird, the male busying himself but little with the bringing. up 

 of his family. 



Eggs. — Four in number. The ground-colour is generally 

 olive, but lighter eggs are found in which the ground is clay- 

 brown or stone-colour. The markings vary much both in size 

 and intensity, some eggs having the spots elongated and more 

 like linear streaks, so that the surface of the egg appears to be 

 marbled. The majority, on the other hand, are rather boldly 

 spotted and blotched with rufous-brown, almost blackish, 

 while some of the larger spots are light brown, almost olive. 

 Although in some the large spots are distributed over the 

 whole egg, in the majority of specimens they congregate near 

 the larger end. The underlying markings are faint purplish- 

 grjy, and are never very distinct. Axis, i*6-i"8 inch. ; diam., 



THE WOOD-TATTLERS. GENUS RHYACOPIIILUS. 



Rhyacophilus^ Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 140 (1829). 



Type, R. glarcola (L.). 



The genus Rhyacophilus belongs to the long-tailed group of 

 Tattlers, in which the bill is short and the length of the tail 

 exceeds that of the culmen. The tarsus is long and exceeds 

 the culmen in length. The tail is nearly square, and the 

 centre feathers are scarcely produced beyond the others. The 

 plumes on the chin reach to about the level of the frontal 

 line. 



Only one species of Wood-Tattler is known, confined to the 

 Old World, where it is very widely distributed. 



I. THE WOOD-TATTLER. RHYACOPHILUS GLAREOLA. 



Trijiga glareola^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 



Totanus glareola^ Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 346 (1852); Dresser, 



B. Eur. viii. p. 143, pi. 565 (1877); B. O. U. List Brit. 



B. p. 175 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 



463 (1884); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 133 (1885); 



Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 593 (1889). 



T 2 



