216 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Genus HEL0DR0MA5, or Green Sandpipers. 



Type, HELODEOMAS OCHEOPUS. 



Helodromas, of Kaup (1829).— The Green Sandpipers are very closely 

 allied to the Hard-billed Sandpipers but present several characteristics which 

 seem to warrant their generic separation. Possibly the most important of these 

 is an osteological one. The Green Sandpipers are remarkable for possessing two 

 notches only in the posterior margin of the sternum. They are further charac- 

 terised by having the tarsus but slightly longer than the middle toe. 



This genus is composed of two species, one of which is distributed over the 

 greater part of the Palsearctic region during summer, and parts of the Ethiopian 

 and Oriental regions during winter ; the other breeding in the extreme northern 

 and southern portions of the Nearctic and Neotropical regions and wintering in 

 the American portion of the Intertropical realm. One species is a not unfrequent 

 visitor on passage to the British Islands, the other is a rare abnormal migrant 

 to them. 



The Green Sandpipers very closely resemble the Hard-billed Sandpipers in 

 their general habits, but in the manner of their nesting differ in certain important 

 particulars, noticed fully in the chapters dealing with them. 



