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f ,? 



284 



PRiECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LLMICOL.E. 



alive. It was not at all shy, and ted readily on small v inns, first dipping them in 

 a pan of water. It wcmld run about the room rapidly, eon.stantly moving its tail up 

 and down like a ^Vlleatear. When flushed it utters a shrill whistle, and generally 

 flies low, skinnning over the surface of the water, and foUoAving with precision all 

 the bends and angles of the stream. 



The Green Sandpiper is said to visit Scandinavia in the S2)ring, and to remain 

 there until August. It is not included among the birds of the Fariie Islands or nt 

 Iceland. In tlie spring and autunni it is very generally distrilmted over Euro])e. in 

 France it is esteemed a great delicacy, and is ca\ight by means of limed twigs. It is 

 found in all the countries liordering on the ^Icditcrranean, Avas taken by jMr. Strick- 

 land in Smyrna, and, as Vieillot states, has been seen in Egypt. It is said to be a 

 characteristic summer resident near sheets of Avater in the Avooded districts of North- 

 eastern Germany, but it is ncA'er found in open marshes in the breeding-season. It 

 has been known also to breed among tin Lower Alps of Southeastern France and 

 throughout the French Pyrenees. It has been found in nund)ers in winter anions,' 

 tlie mountains of Abyssinia, and has also bt-en met Avith even as far south as the 

 Cape Colony. In Asia it appears to be conuuon in I'ersia, In<lia, Turkestan, Bur- 

 mah, China, and Japan, and to breed in all the northern piu'tions of that conti- 

 nent. It is said to be very shy and difficult of approach. Its flight is graceful and 

 swift, and it traverses a considerable distance Avith but few strokes of its Avings. It 

 hovers a little just before it alights, and then its Avings are more extended than in 

 its flight. It is A'ery peculiar in its mode of nesting, depositing its eggs in old 

 nests situated in trees, and is not known ever to nest on the ground. The details 

 of its breeding-habits Avere flrst published in "Cabanis's .biurnal "' (l.SGl'. \). 4()0) by 

 Mr. Hintz, avIio found its nest for the flrst time April I'O, IS.'U, in an old one of a 

 Tiirdiis muslcus. He afterAvard saAv their eggs in old nests of I'igeons, Jays, Shrikes, 

 and other birds, but most commonly in those of tlie Thrush. Writing in 1862, 'Mr. 

 Hintz states that none of the nests he had found up to that date Avere more than 

 three paces from Avater, some being as Ioav as a foot above the ground, although 

 usually at an eleA'ation of from three to six feet, and in some instances as nuich as 

 thirty-flve. It not infrecjuently nses the .same nest tAvo years in succession. The 

 young, as soon as they are hatched, jump to the ground. It breeds as early as April. 

 In one instance seven eggs of this bird Avere found in an old nest of a Thrush, most 

 probably laid by tAA'o females of this species. 



The eggs of the Green Sandpiper are pear-shaped. In some the groiuid is of a 

 delicate grayish sea-green, over Avhich are sparingly distributed pale purplish-gray 

 shell-markings and dark-broAvn blotches, the latter being chiefly collected round the 

 larger end. In otlier examples the sjjots are smaller, more numerous, and more gen- 

 erally distributed. Six eggs in my cabinet from Eastern Prussia exhibit the follow- 

 ing measurements: 1.50x1.12; 1.49x1.10; 1.51x1.11; 1.52x1.10; 1.53x1.10; 

 1.51 X 1.08 : average, 1.51 x 1.10. 



Hi 



^1 



Genus SYMPHEMIA, Rafinesque. 



Sijmphemia, Rafinesque, .Tour, de Phys. 1819 (type, Scolopax semipalviata, G.mei..). 

 Catoptrophorus, Bonap. Syn. 1828, 323 (same typo). 



Char. Bill compressed, A'ery thick, the culmen rounded. The loAver mandible scarcely grooved 

 che upper grooved to about the middle. Culmen sl'ghtly conA'ex ; gonys ascending. Bill cleft hut 

 little beyond base of culmen. Feathers of sides of both mandibles falling short of the nostrils, the 



