222 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus Totanxjs. 



Subfamily TOTANINM. 



COMMON SANDPIPER. 



TOTANUS HYPOLEUCUS— (Lww^Ms). 



Tringa hypoleucus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 



Actitis hypoleucus (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 351 (1852). 



Totanus hypoleucus (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 127, pi. 563 (1877) ; Yarrell, Brit. 

 B. ed. 4, iii. p. 446 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B.iii. p. 117 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Brit. B. p. 266 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 136, pi. 43 

 (1896). 



Tringoides hypoleucus (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 283 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 456 (1896). 



Geographical A\str\hnt\on.— British : The Common Sandpiper passes 

 the Channel Islands on spring and autumn migration. It breeds in the moor- 

 land districts of Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, and northwards through Wales 

 to the Peak. Thence it becomes widely distributed in the upland districts, 

 throughout the north of England, and Scotland up to the Orkneys and Shetlands, 

 and west to the Outer Hebrides. Prom the wild nature of the country and its 

 suitability to the requirements of this species, the bird is widely distributed in 

 Ireland. Elsewhere in England it is chiefly known on spring and autumn 

 passage, but a few occasionally remain on our southern coasts all the winter, as 

 I have recently proved. Foreign : Palsearctic region. It breeds throughout 

 Scandinavia, and across Europe and Asia as far north as the Arctic circle. In 

 Europe it breeds as far south as the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians, the 

 Balkans, the hills of Greece, and the Caucasus ; whilst in Asia its summer range 

 extends to Turkestan, Cashmere, China, (where it is a common resident in the 

 Lower Yangtse basin) and Japan. The European birds winter in the African 

 portion of the Intertropical realm, but a few are said to be found all the year 

 round in the basin of the Mediterranean ; whilst others, probably immature or 

 abnormal migrants from South Africa, have been noticed to remain during 

 summer in Teneriffe and North-east Africa. The Asiatic birds winter in Arabia, 

 India (although it appears to breed in the Calcutta district), Ceylon, Burmah, the 

 Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the northern half of 

 Australia. Whether this species is a normal migrant to the southern half of 



