SANDPIPER. GRALLATORES. TOTANUS. 85 



THE authority upon which this bird ranks as a rare Bri- Rare visi. 

 tish visitant, seems to rest solely on the description given by 

 Mr EDWARDS of a bird that was shot in Essex, but which 

 (as I have before remarked with regard to that figured and 

 described by BEWICK as Totanus macularms) appears to be 

 nothing more than Totanus hypoleucos ; and the specimens 

 also from which my figures were taken, though supposed to 

 have been killed in England, I am afraid cannot be satis- 

 factorily substantiated as such. According to TEMMINCK, 

 it is sometimes met with on the coast of the Baltic, and in 

 parts of Germany, but never in Holland. This distribu- 

 tion appears singular ; and, as an American species, it is dif- 

 ficult to account for its appearance so far out of the line of 

 its migrations. In the United States it is very common, and, 

 like the Sandpiper of this country, to which it is closely al- 

 lied, is there known as a summer visitant. During that sea- 

 son, it is found distributed throughout the interior, inhabit- 

 ing, in great numbers, the banks of the various rivers and 

 lakes with which that country abounds. Its manners and 

 economy appear to be very similar to those of our own spe- 

 cies ; and in perusing WILSON'S animated and graphic ac- 

 count of this bird in his excellent American Ornithology *, 

 we can scarcely divest ourselves of the idea that he is not de- 

 scribing Totanus hypoleucos. The same continual motion 

 of the tail equally distinguishes both kinds ; and their mode 

 of nidification, the colour of the eggs, their food, and other Nest, &c. 

 particulars, are all much alike. It quits the United States Food * 

 in October for more southern latitudes, and is supposed to 

 winter in South America and the West Indian islands. 



PLATE 17. Represents the male and female of the natural 



size, which is rather less than Totanus hypoleucos. 

 Under mandible of the bill orange-yellow; the upper and General 

 tip brown. The eye-streak and orbits white. Head 

 and the whole of the upper parts pale hair-brown, glossed 



* See WILSON'S American Ornithology, vol. vii. p. 64. pi. 59. fig. 1, 



