564 



WOOD SANDPIPER. 



song" is much more melodious than that of the sky-lark, but does not 

 consist of so great a variety of notes ; but then it sings almost through- 

 out the year, except in the months of June and July. It does not 

 mount in the air in a perpendicular manner, and continue hovering 

 and singing in the same spot like the sky-lark, but will sometimes soar 

 to a great height, and keep flying in large irregular circles, singing the 

 whole time with little intermission ; and will thus continue in the air 

 for an hour together. 



It is a very early breeder, beginning to build in March. We have even 

 found the nest with eggs as early as the fourth of April. It is placed 

 on the ground, most commonly in rough and barren land, under a tuft 

 of high grass, furze, or some low bush ; and is made of dry grass, 

 lined with finer grass, and sometimes with a few long hairs. The 

 eggs are generally four in number, brown, mottled with dusky and 

 cinereous, mostly at the larger end ; are somewhat less than those of 

 the sky-lark ; their weight from forty to fifty grains. 



These birds rarely assemble in larger flocks than six or seven ; most 

 probably the family, which associate together till the returning spring. 

 Their food is grain and seeds of various kinds, as well as insects. 



WOOD OWL.— A name for the Tawny owl. 



WOODPECKER (Picus, Linnaeus.)— *A genus of climbers, 

 (Scansores, Cuvier,) of which we have the Hickwall, the Poppinjay, 

 the Whitwall, besides two stragglers.* 



WOOD PIGEON.— A name for the Ring Dove. 



WOOD SANDPIPER (Totanus glareola, Temminck.) 



*Totanus Glareola, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 2. p. 654 Tringa Glareola, Linn. Syst. 



1. p. 250. 13. 0.— Fauna Suec. No. 184 Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 111.— Lath. Ind. 



Orn. 2. p. 130. No. \3 —Retz. Fauna Suec. 186. 155.— Wood Sandpiper, Arct. 

 Zool. 2. p. 482. A Lath. Syn. 5. p. 172. 13.— Ftem. Br. Anim. p. 103 * 



This species is about the size of the jack snipe, but of a more slender 

 form. Length, from the apex of the bill to the end of the tail, nine 

 inches ; to the end of the toes eleven inches and a half ; weight two 

 ounces and a quarter; bill not quite an inch and a quarter long, the 

 base half dusky green, the other black, slender, a trifle bending down- 

 ward at the point ; upper mandible rather the longest, tapering to a 

 blunt point, irides dusky ; from the bill to the eye a dusky streak, 

 above which, on each side, is white passing over the eye ; the middle of 

 the forehead and crown dusky black, streaked with dirty white, which 

 gives it a cinereous hue, fore part lightest ; breast, belly, sides, vent, 

 and under tail coverts, spotless white ; the feathers on the back dusky 

 black, with a purplish gloss, marked with a dull yellowish spot on each 

 side the webs near the tip ; scapulars the same, with several spots on 



