MARSH SANDPIPER. 



Totanus stagnatilis, Bechst. 

 Le Chevalier stagnatile. 



This elegant species of Sandpiper is here represented in its adult state, and in the plumage of winter, which 

 differs from that of summer only in being more generally light on the upper surface, the ash-grey being 

 uninterrupted with transverse bars of black, the last remains of which may be observed on the scapularies : 

 the under surface is also more purely white, with scarcely any traces of the longitudinal black streaks which 

 characterize the plumage of summer. In form and general contour, the Marsh Sandpiper approaches closely 

 to the Spotted Redshank (Totanus fuscus, Leisl.), but is not much more than half its size; besides which, the 

 legs of the former are of an olive-green, while those of the latter are red. 



The Marsh Sandpiper is not a native of the British Islands, and it appears to be extremely rare upon the 

 Continent : its extent of habitat, however, is by no means very limited, since, according to M. Temminck, 

 who favoured me with the examples from which the present figure was drawn, it migrates from the North of 

 Europe, its summer habitat, throughout the eastern provinces as far as the Mediterranean, frequenting the 

 borders of large rivers, but never taking up its residence on the sea-shore. 



As its name implies, it obtains its food from the marshes and humid tracts which border inland rivers and 

 sheets of fresh water. 



The top of the head grey, with longitudinal spots of black ; upper surface grey, each feather having a 

 lighter margin ; wings blackish brown ; tail white, marked with diagonal bars of brown ; the other parts and 

 the whole of the under surface white ; the bill and irides blackish brown ; the legs bright olive-green : such 

 is the plumage of the adult in winter. Its total length is about nine inches. 



The young have the whole of the upper plumage of a brownish black, each feather bearing a yellowish 

 border ; the scapularies barred with narrow diagonal lines of black ; and the tarsi of a greenish ash colour. 



The figure is of the natural size. 



