SANDPIPER. GRALLATORES. TOTANUS. 83 
are nearly able to fly. If discovered, and attempted to be 
caught before being fully fledged, they boldly take to the 
water, repeatedly diving, and to a considerable distance ;—a 
provision wisely granted, as being so well adapted to insure 
their safety in the unfledged state. After the young have 
gained sufficient strength, these birds prepare for their au- 
tumnal or equatorial migration, and by the end of Septem- 
ber the greater part of them have quitted the kingdom. 
* They retire to the warmer parts of Continental Europe, to 
Asia, and to Africa; but Dr LarxHam appears to be in er- 
ror when he states it as a species common to America, for it 
is not recognised by Wi1son, or by other American orni- 
thologists. Its place in that country is supplied by another 
closely allied species, viz. Totanus macularius (Spotted 
Sandpiper). In Bewicx’s admirable work a description and 
figure are given of a bird which he thought was the T'’ringa 
macularia of authors, but it approaches, in every respect, so 
closely to the young of the Common Sandpiper, that I can- 
not help thinking he must have mistaken the species. At 
all events, his bird could not have been an adult Spotted 
Sandpiper, as neither the figure nor description give an idea 
of the peculiar spotting of the whole of the under parts, so 
distinctive of both the male and female of that species. In 
Totanus hypoleucos and Totanus macularius the furrow ex- 
tends for more than two-thirds of the length of the upper 
mandible, and the bill is not quite so much rounded near 
the tip, as in the preceding species of this genus; in these 
particulars shewing their affinity to the genus Tringa. The 
food of these birds consists of the worms and insects usually 
found in the localities they frequent. 
Prate 15. Fig. 3. Represents the Common Sandpiper of 
the natural size. 
Between the bill and eyes is a dark hair-brown patch, and a 
€scrip- 
over the eyes is a white streak. Head and upper parts gion, 
of the body of a lightish hair-brown colour, glossed with ue 
“ , rd. 
FQ 
