366 



TOT ANUS. 



Synonymy. Tringa glareola, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 149 (1758) ; Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. Q77 (1788). 



Tringa ochropus, /3. glareola, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 

 Tringa grallatoris, Montagu, Orn. Diet. Suppl. App. S (1813). 

 Totanus glareola {Linn.), Temminck, Man. d'Orn. p. 421 (1815). 

 Totanus affinis^ Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 191 (1832). 

 Totanus grallatoris {Mont.), Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. i. p. 148 (1824). 

 Rhyacophilus glareola {Linn.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 140 (1829). 

 Actitis glareola {Linn.), Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc. p. 267 (1849). 

 Totanus glareoloides, Hodgson, fide Jerdon, B. India, iii. p. 697 (1864) . 



Literature. Plates. — Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 57 ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. pi. 565. 



Habits. — Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 132. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 30. figs. 4, 5, 6. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Nearest ally. 



The Wood-Sandpiper has the lower hack nearly the same colour as the mantle, and the 

 predominant colour of the upjjer tail-coverts, awillaries, and under loing-coverts is white. 

 This diagnosis is sufl&cient to distinguish it from all its congeners except from its two 

 nearest allies, both of which are larger birds, as may be seen in the table of dimensions 

 already given. 



The Wood-Sandpiper has a very extensive breeding-range. It has occurred in the 

 Faroes, and may be regarded as a somewhat 

 irregular visitor on spring and autumn migration 

 to the British Islands, on very rare occasions 

 remaining to breed. It is a summer visitor to 

 the whole of Europe north of the valley of the 

 Danube, and to Siberia, Turkestan, Mongoha, and 

 the extreme north of China. It probably breeds 

 as far north as land extends, as Middendorff found 

 its nest in lat. 7U° on the Taimyr peninsula. 

 It winters in the basin of the Mediterranean, and 

 in suitable localities throughout Africa. In Asia it 

 winters in Persia, Beloochistan, India, Ceylon, the 



Burma peninsula, and the islands of the Malay Archipelago, but only passes through Japa 

 and South China on migration. 



On the American continent it is represented by a close ally, Totanus flavipes. 



an 



