284 CHARADRIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



markings below, the legs being bright yellow. T. melanoleucus, 

 of the same districts, is similar, but larger. T. guttifer is a rare 

 North Pacific species, recorded in winter from Calcutta and 

 Burma. It is not unlike T. glottis, the Greenshank, which ranges 

 over Northern Europe and Asia, and extends in winter to 

 Cape Colony, the Indian Eegion, and Australia. This bird has 

 wandered to America, and breeds in the hill-districts of Scotland, 

 resembling the Dusky Redshank in its selection of dry nesting 

 sites, habit of perching, and so forth. It is, however, much more 

 noisy, uttering a strident note, or one dimly recalling a Woodpecker, 

 while it lays large, buffish-white eggs with rich brown blotches. 

 It sometimes eats small fish, as does its congener T. incanus. The 

 plumage is grey and black above in summer and grey in winter, 

 with white rump and tail, the latter being barred with dusky ; the 

 white breast is spotted with brown in the breeding season ; the 

 slightly up-turned beak is blackish ; the legs are olive. T. stagnatilis, 

 the Marsh Sandpiper, a miniature Greenshank of somewhat similar 

 winter range, occupies South Europe and Central Asia. T. glareola, 

 the Wood Sandpiper, is olive-brown above, with small whitish 

 spots and white rump ; the white cheeks, fore-neck, and breast are 

 heavily streaked with brown; the tail-feathers and axillaries are also 

 white with black bars and brown flecks respectively, the feet are 

 olive. The nest has once at least been found in Britain, whence 

 the bird ranges over North Europe and Asia ; it has apparently 

 bred in Spain and Italy, and migrates to Cape Colony, the 

 Indian Eegion, and Australia. In this species and the following 

 the note is shrill and often tremulous, while the former occasion- 

 ally, and the latter habitually, lays its greenish eggs with reddish- 

 brown spots in deserted nests of other birds near inland waters, 

 instead of on the ground. T. ocliropus, the Green Sandpiper, which 

 is less spotted above, has much wider black tail-bars, and blackish 

 axillaries with white chevrons. It has been suspected of breeding 

 in Britain, and occupies a similar though somewhat more northern 

 range than the last-named, but does not reach Australia. T. 

 solitarius, with almost uniform brown median rectrices, inhabits 

 temperate, and migrates to tropical, South America ; it has been 

 shot in the littoral marshes of western England. T. (Symphemia) 

 semipcdmatus, largest of the genus, the Willet of temperate North 

 America, which extends to Brazil in winter and wanders to 

 Europe, is brownish-grey with black mottlings, the outspread 



