Limieolce 211 



migrates as far south as Australia and Cape Colony. 

 The nest consists of a few bits of grass or leaves, and is 

 usually placed among shingle under the lee of some plant, 

 fallen log, or stone, but not uncommonly in a field or 

 on a bank ; stony sides of lakes or rivers, or islands in 

 the latter, are the favourite sites. The four pointed eggs 

 are exceptionally broad at the larger end and are of 

 a stone-colour with purplish or reddish brown and grey 

 markings. In summer the bird's upper parts are 

 greenish brown with darker marks and a good deal of 

 white on the conspicuously rounded tail, the breast is 

 more ash-coloured, and the beUy white ; in winter the 

 upper parts are purer brown. 



We now come to a group of larger Sandpipers, 

 all of which may be included in the single genus Totanus. 

 The first two are the Wood Sandpiper {T. glareola) and 

 the Green Sandpiper {T. ochrojms), both brown birds 

 with buff-white spotting and white lower parts, the 

 fore-neck and breast being profusely streaked with 

 brown and the upper tail-coverts nearly white. Though 

 the adult of the latter species is slightly greener above, 

 identification would be difficult were it not for the 

 pattern of the axiUaries and central tail-feathers, 

 well illustrated in Saunders' Manual of British Birds 

 (ed. 2, p. 612). The axiUaries, which spring below the 

 wing, in the Wood Sandpiper are almost white with 

 brown flecks, in the Green Sandpiper blackish with 

 narrow white bars meeting to form " arrow-heads," and 

 the tail-feathers in the first-named have very much 

 narrower black bars than in its congener. It is a curious 

 fact that, though the Green Sandpiper is much the 

 commoner bird with us inland on its passage in autumn, 

 and sometimes stays for the winter, yet on the spring 



14—2 



