COMMON SANDPIPER. 117 



TOTANUS HYPOLEUCUS. 

 COMMON SANDPIPER. 



(Plate 80.) 



Tringa guinetta, Briss. Orn. v. p. 183, pi. xvi. fig. 2 (17G0). 



Tringa hypoleucos, Limi. Si/st. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum — 



Gmelin, Latham, {Naumann), (Sclileyel), {Newton)., (Sclater), (Saunders), Sec. 

 Totanus hypoleucos (Linn.), Teinm. Man. d'Orn. p. 424 (1815). 

 Totanus guinetta (Brisi^.), Leach, Si/st. Cat. Mamm. ^c. Brit. 3fus. p. 30 (1816). 

 Actitis liypoleucus (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 560. 

 Trynga leucoptera, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiut. ii. p. 196 (1826). 

 Tringoides hypoleucus (Linn.), Bonap. Sagg. Distrih. Metod. p. 58 (1831). 

 Guinetta hypoleuca {Linn.), Gray, List Gen. B. p. 68 (1840). 

 Actitis empusa, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, p. 222. 

 Actitis schlegeli, Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 597 (1856). 



The Common Sandpiper is a well-known summer visitor to the British 

 Islands. It is most partial to elevated moorland districts, and conse- 

 quently is only known on migration in the low-lying eastern counties 

 south of the Humber and east of the Severn. A few pairs nest on the 

 wild moorland districts of the south-west of England, and it occurs more 

 frequently in Wales, but its true breeding-range is almost similar to that 

 of the Red Grouse. North of Derbyshire it is very commonly distributed 

 in all suitable localities, including the Orkneys and Shetland and the 

 Outer Hebrides. In Ireland it is an equally well-known bird, and breeds 

 in suitable places throughout the country. To the Channel Islands it only 

 appears to be a visitor on spring and autumn migration. 



The Common Sandpiper has a very extensive range, reaching from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. It breeds throughout Scandinavia, but in North 

 Russia and Siberia it is not found north of the Arctic circle ^. It breeds 

 in suitable localities throughout Europe, and in Asia as far south as 

 Turkestan (and possibly Persia), Cashmere, China, and Japan. A few 

 remain all the year round in the basin of the Mediterranean ; but its 

 principal winter-quarters are throughout Africa in suitable localities, 

 India, Ceylon, Burma, the islands of the Malay archipelago, and the 

 coasts of New Guinea and Australia. It has been found during the 

 breeding-season in Teneriffe and North-east Africa, but in neither of these 

 localities have its eggs been obtained. Its alleged occurrence on the 

 island of Kodiak, south of Alaska, does not appear to be admitted by the 

 American ornithologists. On the continent of ximerica it is represented 



* In my paper on the ornithology of Siberia (Ibis, 1879, p. 152) the range of this 

 species is incorrectly given. After the words " found it fi-equent on the banks of the river 

 wherever I went," the words " south of the Arctic circle " were accideutallv omitted. 



