SANDPIPER 811 
running almost if not quite to its extremity, and therefore closely 
connected with the mode of feeding) and in the style of plumage— 
the Tringine, with blunt and flexible bills, mostly assuming a 
summer-dress in which some tint 
of chestnut or reddish-brown is 
very prevalent, while the 7otanin, 
with more acute and stiffer bills, 
display no such lively colours. 
Furthermore, the 7ringinx, except when actually breeding, frequent 
the sea-shore much more than do the Totaninx.!_ To the latter belong 
the GREENSHANK and REDSHANK, as well as the Common Sandpiper 
of English books, the ‘“‘Summer-Snipe” above-mentioned, a bird 
hardly exceeding a Skylark in size, and of very general distribution 
throughout the British Islands, but chiefly frequenting clear streams, 
especially those with a gravelly or rocky bottom, and most generally 
breeding on the beds of sand or shingle on their banks. It usually 
makes its appearance in May, and thenceforth during the summer 
months may be seen in pairs skimming gracefully over the water 
from one bend of the stream to another, uttering occasionally a 
shrill but plaintive whistle, or running nimbly along the margin, the 
mouse-coloured plumage of its back and wings making indeed but 
little show, though the pure white of its lower parts often renders 
it conspicuous. The nest, in which four eggs are laid with their 
pointed ends meeting in its centre (as is usual among Limicoline 
birds), is seldom far from the water’s edge, and the eggs, as well 
as the newly-hatched and down-covered young, so closely resemble 
the surrounding pebbles that it takes a sharp eye to discriminate 
them. Later in the season family-parties may be seen about the 
larger waters, whence, as autumn advances, they depart for their 
winter-quarters. The Common Sandpiper is found over the greater 
part of the Old World. In summer it is the most abundant bird of 
its kind in the extreme north of Europe, and it extends across Asia 
to Japan. In winter it makes its way to India, Australia and the 
Cape of Good Hope. In America its place is taken by a closely- 
kindred species, which is said to have also occurred in England—7. 
macularius, the ‘ Peetweet,” or Spotted Sandpiper, so called from its 
usual cry, or from the almost circular marks which spot its lower 
plumage. In habits it is very similar to its congener of the Old 
World, and in winter it migrates to the Antilles and to Central and 
South America. Of other Zotanine, one of the most remarkable is 
that to which the inappropriate name of Green Sandpiper has been 
Toranus. (After Swainson.) 
1 There are unfortunately no English words adequate to express these two 
sections By some British writers the 7ringinx have been indicated as ‘‘ Stints,” 
a term cognate with Stunt and not wholly applicable to all of them, while recent 
American writers restrict to them the name of ‘‘Sandpiper,” and call the 
Totaning, to which that name is especially appropriate, ‘‘ Willets.” 
