334 CHAKADBIIDJE 



character, especially when the bird first rises from the 

 marsh. It springs up with great velocity and goes off after 

 the fashion of a flushed Snipe. 



Food. Insects and their grubs, worms, and small shell- 

 fish, constitute the diet. The flesh is not palatable and has 

 a rather musky odour. 



Voice. The alarm-note uttered when the bird first takes 

 wing, is sharp and clear, and may be syllabled gikk, giff. 

 During courtship, a tremulous leero, leero, may be heard. 



Nest. The Wood-Sandpiper breeds both on the ground 

 and in trees. In the former situation the nest is generally 

 built among grasses, heather, and other coarse vegetation 

 sufficiently tall to conceal the sitting-bird, and generally at 

 no great distance from water. When breeding in trees, the 

 nests of other species are utilised, thus on the Yenesei Mr. 

 Popham found the eggs in old nests of the Fieldfare 

 (' Ibis,' 1897, p. 104). The eggs, four in number, vary in 

 ground-colour from a light buff to a pale green tint, spotted 

 and blotched with reddish-brown. Incubation begins about 

 the middle of May. 



This bird has nested on very exceptional occasions in the 

 British Isles. The following instances are on record : A 

 nestling found at Beechamwell, Norfolk (Gurney and Fisher, 

 ' Zoologist,' 1846) ; a nest and eggs found on Prestwick Car, 

 Northumberland, in 1853 (Hewitson, ' Eggs of British 

 Birds/ 3rd Edition, vol. ii., p. 332) ; another nest found in 

 Elginshire on May 23rd, 1853 (Evans, Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1899, p. 14). 



Geographical distribution. Abroad the Wood-Sandpiper 

 breeds over a great area of the European and Asiatic 

 Continents, while on migration in autumn and winter it 

 reaches as far as South Africa, India, the adjoining Islands, 

 and Australia. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top of head, hind- 

 neck, back, scapulars, and wings, streaked with greenish- 

 brown and spotted with white ; primaries, dull brown, the 

 outermost with white shafts (vide Green Sandpiper) ; upper 

 tail-coverts, white, with their centres dark ; outer tail- 

 feathers, white, the outer web being barred with brown ; 

 remaining tail-feathers, entirely barred with brown and 

 white ; neck, throat, and breast, impure white with fine 

 streaks of ash-brown ; ilanks, barred similarly ; abdomen 



