2 86 CHARADRIIFORMES 



yellow eggs with brown spots in a slight nest on cultivated 

 lands. 



Actitis liyijoleucus, the Common Sandpiper, breeds in many- 

 parts of Britain, and ranges from the Arctic Circle in Europe 

 and Asia to the Atlantic Islands, the Mediterranean, the 

 Himalayas, and Japan ; it leaves us before winter, however, and 

 migrates to most of the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian 

 Eegions. The coloration is greenish-brown above, with dusky 

 markings, and some white on the wings and tail ; the breast is 

 grey with dark streaks, the belly white. In winter the upper 

 parts are more uniform. Rapid pebbly streams with islands, or 

 fiat stretches of sand are the birds' favourite resorts, where their 

 shrill whistle and somewhat Wagtail-like habits make them very 

 conspicuous ; they fly, run, perch, or swim with equal ease. The 

 nest, usually partly sheltered by rough vegetation or drifted 

 rubbish, contains four reddish-buff eggs with brown and lilac 

 spotting. A. macularius, the Spotted Sandpiper of North America 

 generally, found in winter southwards to Amazonia and Brazil, is 

 smaller, with round black spots beneath in summer ; it lacks the 

 nearly white eighth and ninth secondaries of its congener. 



Terclda cinerea, with the up-curved beak of a Greenshank, but 

 the habits and eggs of the last genus, breeds from Archangel 

 eastward to the Pacific, leaving these haunts for the Indian Region 

 to winter, when it is also found in South Africa and Australia. 

 It is grey and black above, with white on the secondaries, and 

 black scapulars, and white below streaked with dusky. 



MicrojJalama himantopus, the long-legged Stilt -Sandpiper, 

 inhabits the extreme North-East of America, migrating to Peru 

 and Argentina. It has black, rufous, and greyish-white upper 

 parts, white tail-coverts, and under parts with blackish bars ; in 

 winter the back is grey, while the bars nearly disappear beneath. 

 The habits, nest, and eggs are much as in other Sandpipers. 



The God wits {Limosct) have long legs and bills, the latter being 

 slightly up-curved. L. lelgica, the Black-tailed Godwit, nested 

 regularly, up to about 1824, in the eastern counties of England, 

 and, like the Ruff, was netted for eating. It now breeds from 

 Iceland, the Faroes, and Holland to Siberia and Amurland, the 

 smaller eastern form being sometimes denominated L. melanu- 

 ro'ides ; the winter range reaches to the Atlantic Islands, Abys- 

 sinia, Ceylon, the Malay Islands, Japan, Australia, and Polynesia. 



