CHARADBTID^E TOTANUS 399 



ing behind the eye ; below white, the sides of the face and neck, the 

 fore neck and chest slightly darker and with faint brown shaft 

 streaks ; axillaries white. 



Iris brown ; bill dark brown, yellowish at the base of the lower 

 mandible, slightly up-curved towards the tip ; legs and feet yellow. 



Length about 9'5 ; wing 4*9 ; tail 2*0 ; culmen 1-5 ; tarsus 1*1. 



The sexes are alike ; in the breeding plumage the black centres of 

 the upper surface are much more conspicuous and there is a rufes- 

 cent tint ; beneath the sides of the head and breast are distinctly 

 striated with brown. 



Distribution. The Terek Sandpiper breeds in North-east Europe 

 and Northern Asia, from Archangel to Behring Straits ; it winters 

 in India and the Malay regions and occasionally in Australia. In 

 Africa it has only been noticed in a few localities and is, perhaps, 

 of accidental occurrence. 



Ayres sent home an example shot out of a flock of four or five 

 of these birds in Durban Harbour, while there is an example in 

 the British Museum from Walvisch Bay obtained, in October, by 

 Andersson, who states that he has further occasionally met with 

 this bird in the Swakop Eiver Valley at Hykomkop and Otjim- 

 binque, and also at Omanbonde. It has apparently escaped the 

 notice of modern writers that Zelebor, the naturalist attached to the 

 Austrian Novara Expedition, shot a Terek Sandpiper on the edge 

 of a small pond near Simonstown ; beyond these I know of no 

 other South African records. 



Habits. Andersson states that the birds met with by him were 

 always solitary and were found feeding on the sedgy borders of 

 sluggish streamlets. The food consists of small insects. 



744. Totanus hypoleucus. Common Sandpiper. 



Tringa hypoleucus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 250 (1766). 



Tringoides hypoleucus, Gurney, Ibis, 1861, p. 134, 1868, p. 469 [Natal] ; 

 Kirk, Ibis, 1864, p. 332 ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 327 (1867) ; Sharpe, 

 ed. Layard 's B. 8. Afr. p. 686 (1884) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1885, p. 348 ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 456 (1896) ; id. Ibis, 1897, p. 517 ; Wood- 

 ward Bros., Natal B. p. 187 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 265 ; 

 Alexander, ibid. p. 455 ; Beichenow, Vog. Afr.i, p. 224 (1900) ; Short- 

 ridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 203. 



Actitis hypoleucus, Gurney, in Anderson's B. Damaral. p. 303 (1872) ; 

 Shelley, Ibis, 1875, p. 86 ; Oates, Matabeleland, p. 325 (1881) ; Holub 



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