8 MARSH SANDPIPER. 



Spectre Characters. — Bill long and thin; the bare portion of the tibia as 

 long as the middle toe. Rump white; the middle tail feathers barred 

 transversely with brown zigzags; the outer tail feathers with their outer 

 webs edged with a line of brown and dirty white. Length nine inches, 

 wing from carpus to tip five inches and a half, bill one inch and seven 

 tenths, tarsus two inches, middle toe with claw one inch and one fifth. 



The Marsh Sandpiper, although chiefly inhabiting South-eastern 

 Europe and Southern Siberia, is met with in Central Europe, and 

 occasionally, though rarely, penetrates into France and Spain. It has 

 been killed, according to Degland, at Dunkirk, St. Omer, Abbeville, 

 and Dieppe, in the department of Aube, and in some parts of the 

 south of France. Baillon mentions it as a rare visitor in Picardy. 

 Savi says it comes in small numbers to Pisano in April, but leaves 

 shortly after. Count Miihle says that many are killed in Greece in 

 October and November, but it is always considered there as among 

 the rarer birds. Dr. Lindermayer informs us that it comes into Greece 

 with the equinoctial spring storms in great numbers. It lives in 

 swampy meadows till the middle of May, when it goes farther north. 

 It has not yet been found to breed in Greece. Dr. L. does not con- 

 sider it so rare a bird as Count Miihle, as he has observed large 

 flocks of them at Phaleros, and he has killed a great number in a 

 single morning. It only frequents the islands on its migration. He 

 did not observe it in autumn. The most northern spot at vt^hich it 

 has been met with in Europe is Heligoland, and there it has only 

 occurred once accidentally. 



Lord Lilford ("Ibis," vol. ii, p. 344,) says, — *^ Abundant in March, 

 April, and the early part of May, on the race-course of Corfu. The 

 habits of the species closely resemble those of the Green Sandpiper, 

 ( T. ochropus,) but it is less shy, and not so clamorous. I have 

 had excellent opportunities of observing closely the habits of this 

 and many other allied species on the race-course, having sometimes 

 seen within a few yards of the spot on which I lay hidden, T. glottis, 

 T. stagnatilis, T. glareola, T. ochropus, Himantopus melanopterus, 

 Tringa minuta, Numenius plicBopus, and Glareola pratincola.''^ 



It is included by Naumann among the birds of Germany, but it is 

 not mentioned in the " Faune Beige," nor by Dr. Machado in his 

 list of Andalusian birds, though it may be expected to occur, I think, 

 in Spain. Mr. Saunders has in fact noted the occurrence of this 

 species in the neighbourhood of Barcelona, {cf. Ibis, 1871, p. 388.) 



I have been favoured by Mr. C. A. Wright, with the following note 



