418 Scolopacidce. 



by old British writers, Latham and others, it was known as 

 Tringa gambetta. The meaning of calidris is unknown, but it 

 is as old as the time of Aristotle, who designated some speckled 

 water-bird under this name, and it was applied by Linnaeus to 

 the Redshank, which it is to be hoped will retain it to the end 

 of time. This species seldom comes far inland except in the 

 breeding season, and I have but two instances of its occurrence 

 in "Wiltshire, both communicated to me by Mr. Grant, who 

 received the two specimens in the flesh, the one on May 26th, 

 1865, the other in September, 1868, both, strangely enough, from 

 the same locality, Whitley, near Melksham. In addition to the 

 names mentioned above, it is known in Germany as Rothfussiger 

 Wasserlaiifer, * Red-Footed Water- Runner ;' in Sweden as Rod- 

 bent Sndppa ; and in Portugal as Chalrtta. 



153. GREEN SANDPIPER (Totanus ochropus). 



This and the following species seem interlopers in the midst 

 of the Snipe family, and scarcely deserve to be classed with 

 them, for their beaks are neither so long nor so sensitive, and 

 they seek their food on the surface as much as below the 

 mud. In other respects they are closely allied to the other 

 members of the family. This is a far more common bird in 

 'Wiltshire than many suppose. It has been shot by the late Rev. 

 G. Marsh in the water-meadows at Salisbury in 1833 : and the 

 Rev. A. P. Morres, who lives in a locality far more suited to its 

 requirements than that which I inhabit, says they are almost 

 always to be found in the water-meadows near Salisbury ; indeed, 

 he has seen them there in every month of the year, with the 

 exception of June. Mr. W. Wyndham writes that it is common 

 at Dinton ; and Lord Heytesbury that a specimen was killed by 

 one of his grandsons in 1884. In North Wilts I learn that^one 

 was seen at Littlecote in May, 1876, and Mr. Grant furnishes me 

 with a goodly list of sixteen which have passed through his 

 hands for preservation, having been taken within a radius of ten 

 or twelve miles of Devizes. It does not remain on the sea-coast 



