420 The Water-fowl Family 



GREEN SANDPIPER 

 {Helodromas ochropus) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage — Head and neck, striped 

 with dark brown and white ; upper parts, olive-brown, with white 

 spots ; upper tail-coverts, pure white, middle feathers, barred 

 with black toward tip; chin, throat, and under parts, white, 

 dusky streaks on fore neck and breast ; bill, dusky ; legs and 

 feet, bluish gray, green at the joints. 



Adult male and female in winter plumage — Head and neck, gray- 

 ish brown, without spots, — these are also faint on the upper 

 parts ; white superciliary stripe ; otherwise similar to breeding 

 plumage. 



Young — Similar to adult in winter ; but feathers of upper parts nar- 

 rowly edged with ashy bronze. 



Downy young — Upper parts, grayish buff and rufous, spotted with 

 black ; a broad black band extends from crown to rump, and 

 narrow black stripes, from bill through eye to nape, on side of 

 crown, and side of body ; lower parts, white. 



Measure?nents — -Length, 10 inches; wing, 5.25 inches; culmen, 

 1.25 inches; tarsus, 1.25 inches. 



Eggs ■ — Four ; pyriform ; creamy white to greenish white, spotted with 

 dark reddish brown and pale grayish brown ; measure 1 .50 by 

 1. 10 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds in the mountains of southern and central Europe, 

 in Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia, south to Turkestan. Win- 

 ters in southern Europe, central Africa, India, Malay Archi- 

 pelago, China, and Japan. Has been recorded from Hudson 

 Bay and Nova Scotia, in North America. 



In its habits in the winter in Egypt, the green 

 sandpiper much resembles our solitary sandpiper, 

 never occurring in flocks, and frequenting the 

 irrigation ditches and the muddy pools left by 

 the retreating Nile. 



In the breeding season this species frequents 

 retired ponds, surrounded by woodland, and breeds 



