366 



TOTANUS. 



Synonymy. Tringa glareola, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 149 (1758) ; Ginelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 677 (1788). 



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

 Tringa grallatoris, Montagu, Or?i. Diet. Suppl. App. S (1813). 

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

 Totanus affinis, Horsfielal, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 191 (1822). 

 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. — Seeoohm, Britisli Birds, iii. p. 132. 

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



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



It has occurred in the 



Nearest ally. 



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

 predominant colour of the upper tail-coverts, axillaries, and under wing-coverts is white. 

 This diagnosis is sufficient 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. 

 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, Mongolia, and 

 the extreme north of China. It probably breeds 

 as far north as land extends, as Middendorff found 

 its nest in lat. 70° 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 Japan 

 and South China on migration. 



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



