610 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



dee-dee," often betrays passing migrants at night. Song, " kitty- 

 needie, kitty-needie, kitty-needie," uttered as bird soars and then 

 descends on quivering wings. When young in danger frenzied 

 screaming is associated with alluring tactics of trailing wings and 

 deflected and expanded tail. 



Breeding-habits. — Usually haunts banks of streams or rivers and 

 sides of lochs. Nest. — Slight, a hollow in ground, generally not far 

 from water, sometimes among shingle under butter-burr, or in grass, 

 at edge of wood or on stony ground, and quite exceptionally on 

 pollard- willow or in cornfields, lined grasses and bits of flood wrack. 

 Eggs. — Normally 4, but 5 occasionally recorded, creamy-buff to 

 warm reddish-buff ground, spotted with reddish and darker brown, 

 chiefly at large end, and occasionally boldly blotched or almost 

 unmarked. Average of 100 British eggs, 36.4x25.9. Max. : 40 X 

 26.9 and 39 X 27.7. Min. : 33.8 X 26.2 and 35.6 X 25 mm. Breeding- 

 season. — About mid-May (occasionally early May) to early June 

 according to latitude. Incubation. — Apparently chiefly, if not 

 entirely, by female. Period 21-23 days. Single brooded. 



Food. — Largely insects and their larvae, coleoptera (especially 

 water -beetles), diptera, Phryganeidse, hymenoptera (Lasius niger, 

 etc.), orthoptera, etc. Also water -spiders, worms, small mollusca 

 and Crustacea (sandhoppers and freshwater shrimps). 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Summer -resident (1st week April, 

 occasionally March, early dates 11th Shropshire, 12th Yorks., 1912, 

 to Sept. and early Oct. and occasionally Nov.). Breeds only excep- 

 tionally south and east of a line from Bristol Channel to Humber, 

 but not uncommonly Devonian peninsula. West and north of this 

 line breeds throughout England and Wales, and Scotland and its 

 isles, and in Ireland except in south-east, where scarce. Elsewhere 

 common passage -migrant, early April to end May and mid-July to 

 early Oct., occasionally later and in winter. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Greater part of Old World, nesting from 

 Arctic Circle to Mediterranean Basin in Europe, and in Asia north 

 Himalayas east to Japan, migrating in winter to east Atlantic 

 islands, central and south Africa, India, East Indian Archipelago, 

 Australia and Tasmania. 



TRINGA MACULARIA 



406. Tringa macularia L— THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



Tkxnga macularia Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. xn, i, p. 249 (1766— Europe 



and America ; Europe probably mistake. Restricted typical locality : 



Pennsylvania). 



Totanus macularius (Linnaeus), Yarrell, in, p. 452 ; Saunders, pp. 606, 



605.* 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Very like Common 

 Sandpiper but feathers of mantle uniform, without, or with only 

 faint, subterminal sepia bars ; under -parts as Common Sandpiper 



