WOOD-SANDPIPER. 135 



of this species ai*e exceptionally small and handsome eggs of the Green 

 Sandpiper, which might be difficult to distinguish from exceptionally large 

 and plain eggs of the Wood- Sandpiper. 



In its winter-quarters in India and South Africa it is described as seldom 

 seen upon the sca-shorc, but as common in marshy districts, principally 

 frequenting the neighbourhood of inland streams and shallow pools. It is 

 seldom seen in large flocks, and is generally found either solitary, in pairs, 

 or small parties. Legge describes it as abundant during the cold season in 

 Ceylon, where it is very fond of frequenting rice-fields, where it picks up 

 insects, and runs about over the newly harrowed soil, totally regardless of 

 the shouts of the natives to their bufialoes. The food of the Wood-Sandpiper 

 is composed of small worms, insects, larvae, and small mollusks. 



The adult male Wood-Sandpiper in full breeding-plumage, after the 

 spring moult*, has the general colour of the upper parts greyish brown, 

 streaked, spotted, and barred with black and white ; the upper tail-coverts 

 are white, the longest streaked and barred with dark brown ; the lesser 

 wing-coverts, the quills, and the feathers of the lower back are plain 

 greyish brown, with obscure narrow white margins; the tail is white, 

 irregularly barred with black, and on the two centre feathers clouded with 

 brown. The underparts are pure white, streaked with brown on the sides 

 of the neck, breast, and under tail-coverts, and obscurely barred with the 

 same colour on the flanks, axillaries, and under wing-coverts. Bill nearly 

 black; legs and feet pale dull olive, claws darker; irides light brown. 

 The female is not known to diff'er from the male in colour. After the 

 autumn moult the head, hind neck, and mantle are almost plain brown, 

 the white spots on the rest of the plumage have become almost obsolete, 

 and the black spots are almost confined to the scapulars and innermost 

 secondaries. The upper tail-coverts and tail scarcely difi'er from those in 

 summer plumage ; the spots on the underparts, except on the under wing- 

 coverts, almost entirely disappear, but the breast is suffused with brown. 

 Young in first plumage soracMhat resemble the adult in winter plumage, 

 except that the head, hind neck, and mantle, as well as nearly all the other 

 feathers of the upper parts, have buff' and white marginal spots, and the 

 streaks on the throat and breast are only obscurely ^dsible. Birds of the 

 year are intermediate between young in first plumage and adults in winter. 

 Young in down are chestnut-bufi", mottled with nearly black on the upper 

 parts, and are huffish white, shading into white on the throat, on the under- 

 parts. 



* An adiilt male Wood-Sandpiper obtained by Dr. Emin Bey at Lado, in Central Africa, 

 on the 15tLi of Febuary, has the first primary in each wing only half-grown. 



