438 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



of beetles of the genera Agonum, Bembidium, Parnus, Cyclonotum, Sitones, Rhin- 

 oncus, and Philhydrus ; water-boatman (Naucoris cimicoides) and Limnophilus 

 griseus. Birds shot in winter in India on the rice stubbles by Irby had their 

 stomachs full of rice. The young feed themselves on minute insects, and afe 

 tended by the reeve alone. [F. c. R. J.] 



COMMON-SANDPIPER \T6tanus hypoleucus (Linnaeus). Summer-snipe, 

 sand-snipe, willy-wicket ; otterling (Devon). French, guignette vulgaire ; 

 German, Fluss- Uferldufer ; Italian, piro-piro piccolo]. 



1. Description. The common-sandpiper is easily recognised by the bronze- 

 green of the upper parts and the peculiar character of the black bars and vermi- 

 culations on the back and wings. It bears a close resemblance, however, to the 

 spotted-sandpiper, from which it may be distinguished by the fact that the sub- 

 terminal dark band which traverses the under surface of the secondaries is broken 

 at the eighth and ninth remiges, whereas in the spotted-sandpiper the band is 

 continuous. The sexes are alike, and there is but a slight seasonal change of 

 coloration. (PI. 127.) Length 8 in. [203-20 mm.]. In the adult the upper parts 

 are of a curious bronzy brown, striated on the crown and neck, and minutely 

 vermiculated with arrow-shaped markings of umber on the back, but with bars 

 on the wing-coverts and inner secondaries. The major coverts are tipped with 

 white, as also are the secondaries, which have white bases ; the bases of the inner 

 webs of the inner primaries are also white, thus forming a continuous white bar 

 in the extended wing. The lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail are also 

 of a bronze-green colour, the latter being barred with umber and tipped with white, 

 the white increasing in area from within outwards, so that the outermost feather 

 is almost entirely white. The under parts are white, striated with slaty black 

 on the neck and fore-breast. After the autumn moult the umber markings of the 

 upper surface disappear, while the striations on the under surface become greatly 

 reduced. The juvenile plumage differs from that of the adults in having a marginal 

 line of sandy buff and a submarginal line of dusky brown on the back and wings. 

 The young in down are pale grey, marbled with black on the head and back, 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. A fairly common summer resident in Devon and Corn- 

 wall, and more numerous in Great Britain west of the Severn and north of the 

 Trent, especially in Scotland, where it ranges to the Inner and Outer Hebrides, 



