284 PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



alive. It was not at all shy, and fed readily on small worms, first dipjjing tliem in 

 a p>an of water. It would run about the room rapidly, constantly luoving its tail up 

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

 flies low, skimming over the surface of the water, and following with precision all 

 the bends and angles of the stream. 



The Green Sandpiper is said to visit Scandinavia in the spring, and to remain 

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

 Iceland. In the spring and autumn it is very generally distributed over Europe. In 

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

 fonnd in all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, was taken by Mr. 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 water in the wooded districts of North- 

 eastern Germany, but it is never found in open marshes in the breeding-season. It 

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

 tln-ougliout the French I'yrenees. It lias been found in numbers in winter among 

 the mountains of Abyssinia, and has also been met with even as far soutli as the 

 Caf)e Colony. In Asia it appears to be common in Persia, India, Turkestan, Bur- 

 mah, China, and Japan, and to breed in all the northern portions of that conti- 

 nent. It is said to be very shy and diflSeult of apx^roach. Its flight is graceful and 

 swift, and it traverses a considerable distance with l)ut few strokes of its wings. It 

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

 its flight. It is very peculiar in its mode of nesting, depositing its eggs in old 

 nests situated in trees, and is n(-)t kno^^-n ever to nest on the ground. The details 

 of its breeding-habits were first pulilished in " Cabanis's Journal " (1862, p. 460) by 

 Mr. Hiutz, who found its nest for the first time April 26, 1834, in an old one of a 

 Turdus musicus. He afterward saw their eggs in old nests of Pigeons, Jays, Shrikes, 

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

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

 three jiaces from water, some being as low as a foot above the ground, although 

 usually at an elevation of from three to six feet, and in some instances as much as 

 thirty-five. It not iufre(piently uses the same nest two 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 were found in an old nest of a Thrush, most 

 probably laid by two females of this species. 



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

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

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

 larger end. In other examples the spots 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. 



Genus SYMPHEMIA, Rafinesque. 



Symphemia, R.\finesque, Jouv. de Phys. 1819 (type, Scolopax semipalmaln, Gmei.. ). 

 Caloptrnphorus, Bonap. Syn. 1828, 323 (same type). 



Char. Bill compressed, very thick, the cuhuen rounded. The lower mandible scarcely grooved 

 the upper grooved to about the middle. Culmen slightly convex ; gonys ascending. Bill cleft but 

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



