126 BRITISH BIRDS. 



TOTANUS OCHROPUS. 

 GREEN SANDPIPER. 



(PLATE 30.) 



Tringa tringa, Briss. Orn. v. p. 177, pi. xvi. fig. 1 (1760). 



Tringa ochropus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



(Naumann), (Bonaparte), (Schlegel), (Dresser), (Sounders), &c. 

 Totanus ocliropus (Linn.), Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 420 (1815). 

 Helodroinas ocliropus (Linn.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 144 (1829). 

 Actitis ochropus (Linn,), Jerdon, B. India, iii. p. 698 (1864). 



The Green Sandpiper is principally known in the British Islands as a 

 frequent visitor on spring and autumn migration. There seems to be 

 strong circumstantial evidence that it has bred in the East Riding of 

 Yorkshire (Stevenson, ' Birds of Norfolk/ ii. p. 226) ; but there is no 

 authentic account of its eggs ever having been taken in this country. 

 A few birds are occasionally seen during summer, but these may be 

 immature. It is also sometimes obtained in England in winter. On 

 migration it appears to be generally distributed, though it is rare in the 

 west and north of Scotland, still rarer in the west of Ireland, and has 

 not occurred on the Hebrides or on the Orkney or Shetland Islands. 



The breeding -range of the Green Sandpiper reaches from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, in the west extending somewhat north of the Arctic circle, 

 but in the east scarcely reaching that latitude. It is not known that this 

 bird breeds in the north of France, Holland, Belgium, or Western Germany; 

 but it has been recorded as doing so in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the 

 Carpathians, and the Caucasus. Further east the southern limit of its 

 breeding-range appears to be Turkestan and the mountains of Southern 

 Siberia. It has been said to breed in Japan and North China ; but the 

 evidence of this is very unsatisfactory, although it certainly winters in 

 both those countries, as well as in Cochin China, Burma, India, Ceylon, 

 and westwards, in suitable localities, throughout Persia, South Europe, 

 and the whole of Africa *. 



* There is not a shred of evidence in support of the statement that this species has 

 occurred on the American continent. Baird, Brewer, and JRidgway base its claim to be 

 an American species on a skin, said to have been sent from Halifax, Nova Scotia, pur- 

 chased by Mr. Harting from Mr. Whitely, "a perfectly trustworthy dealer of Woolwich." 

 I know Mr. Whitely very well. As Mr. Harting says, a more trustworthy dealer is not 

 to be found ; but great numbers of skins pass through his hands, and occasionally a label 

 (which generally contains the locality without the name of the species, otherwise the 



