COMMON-SANDPIPER 495 



reeve utters as she flies uneasily round when disturbed with her 

 young brood. 



In June the male begins to shed his nuptial plumes, and about a 

 month later has lost his ruff altogether. No doubt this is a great 

 advantage to him on migration, as even when depressed it is obviously 

 a hindrance to him in flight. The adult males leave their breeding- 

 grounds in Central Europe during July and early August, to be 

 followed by flocks of females and birds of the year in September. 

 Birds from the high north also arrive about this time all making 

 their way southward to their winter quarters in Africa. 



COMMON SANDPIPER 

 [W. FARREN] 



The various species of sandpipers which are included in the genus 

 Totanus have a family similarity in general habit, but differ so decid- 

 edly in certain respects that it is more convenient in describing their 

 habits to divide them into three groups. The redshank and green- 

 shank, and the wood and green-sandpipers, form convenient groups 

 for comparison, while the common-sandpiper, the subject of the 

 present chapter, has certain ways peculiar to itself, distinct at least 

 from any other British species. 



In striking contrast to most of the stints and sandpipers already 

 described, the species of this genus undergo but little or no seasonal 

 change of plumage, and the plumage of young birds differs very little 

 from that of adults. 



The common-sandpiper is a summer migrant to this country, 

 arriving as a rule on the western half of the south coast, but 

 occasionally there are signs of a small immigration by a more 

 easterly route. 1 In 1910 immigration appeared to be spread all 

 along the south coast. 2 It is very regular in the date of Its arrival, 



1 B. O. C. Migration Report, 1910, xxvi. p. 161. * Ibid., 1911, xxviii. p. 151 



