TOTANUS. 2C3 



green (Jerdon). There is only one notch on each side in the 

 posterior margin of the sternum. 



Length 9-5 ; tail 2-3 ; wing 5'75 ; tarsus 1*3 ; bill from gape 1-5. 



Distribution. Throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, breeding in 

 the North and migrating in winter to Africa, Southern Asia, and 

 the Malay Archipelago. Common in the cold season throughout 

 Northern India, but less abundant in the South, in Ceylon, and in 

 Burma. 



Habits, $c. The Green Sandpiper is generally solitary in India, 

 and in the North may be found by almost every marsh, tank, or 

 river, even in rice-fields, and about pools in streams. It arrives 

 in Northern India sometimes as early as the latter half of July 

 and does not leave till the middle of May. It is a wary bird, and 

 utters a shrill piping note when flying off on being disturbed. The 

 nidification is peculiar, for this Sandpiper lays four eggs of the 

 usual character in the deserted nest of a Thrush, Blackbird, Jay, 

 or even of a Squirrel. 



1463. Totanus stagnatilis. The Marsh Sandpiper or Little 

 Greenslianlc. 



Totanus stagnatilis, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. pt. 2, p. 292, pi. (1803) ; 

 Blyth, Cat. p. 2GO ; Irby, Ibis, 18G1, p. 239; Jerdon, B. I. iii, 

 p. 701 ; Adam, S. F. ii, p. 338 ; Blyth $ Wald. Birds Burm. p. 155 ; 

 Butler, S. F. iv, p. 18 ; v, p. 233 ; Fairbank, ibid. p. 263 ; Armstrong, 

 ibid. p. 348 ; Hume # Dav. S. F. vi, p. 463 ; Davidson $ Wenden, 

 S. F. vii, p. 89 ; Hume, ibid. p. 488 ; id. Cat. no. 895 ; Legye, 

 Birds Ccyl. p. 844 ; Butler, S. F. ix, p. 430; Reid, S. F. x, p. 71 ; 

 Davidson, ibid. p. 321 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 403 j Barnes, Birds Bom. 

 p. 359; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 325; tSeebohm, Charadr. p. 357; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 422. 



Chota ffotra, Beng. 



Coloration in winter. Forehead, lores, cheeks, and whole lower 

 plumage, including axillaries, also lower back and rump, white ; 

 sides of head behind eye and of neck streaked with brown ; crown 

 and hind neck greyish brown, with darker centres to feathers ; 

 upper back, scapulars, and tertiaries brown, with dark shafts and 

 narrow whitish edges ; wing-coverts and primaries darker brown ; 

 secondaries less dark ; greater coverts, secondaries, and later 

 primaries with narrow white edges ; inner edges of quills mottled 

 with white ; upper tail-coverts white, with a few brown bars ; 

 tail-feathers white, middle pair and outer webs of others tinged 

 with ashy brown, and all more or less irregularly barred with 

 darker brown ; the bars disappearing in older birds. 



In summer the feathers of the upper parts have marked dark 

 centres, which form conspicuous angulate spots on the back and 

 " herring-bone " markings on the tertiaries ; the general colour of 

 the upper parts is sandy grey ; the fore neck and upper breast are 

 spotted with brown, and the flanks irregularly barred. 



Bill dark brown, greenish at the base beneath ; irides hazel- 

 brown ; legs and feet bluish green (Legye). 



