WOOD SANDPIPER. 565 



the margins ; the coverts and tertials of the wings the same, but with- 

 out the purplish gloss, and the spots inclining- more to white on the 

 coverts ; the smaller coverts on the ridge of the wing- plain dusky- 

 black ; primary and secondary quills, and first row of greater coverts 

 immediately impending- them, black, slightly tipped with white, except 

 three or four of the first feathers ; the shaft of the first quill is white ; 

 upper part of the rump black, with a few fine streaks of white ; lower 

 rump and upper tail coverts white, those next the tail spotted with 

 black ; the tail consists of twelve feathers, the middlemost rather the 

 longest ; these are barred with black and white alternately, a little 

 oblique ; on the outer webs are eight black bars, on the inner webs six ; 

 the next feather has six bars on the outer, and four on the inner web ; 

 the third has five, and three bars in the same manner ; the fourth fea- 

 ther has five, and one ; the fifth and outer feathers are only spotted on 

 the margin of the outer web, with one spot on the inner web of the 

 former ; the latter is plain white on the interior web ; the black bars 

 on the middle feathers do not exactly correspond, those on the inner 

 webs rise higher at the shaft, and often run into the superior bar on 

 the outer web ; the legs are of an olive-green, long and slender, measur- 

 ing three inches from the knee to the end of the middle toe, and bare 

 of feathers one inch above the knee ; the outer toe connected by a 

 membrane as far as the first joint. 



There is little doubt but this is the Tringa Glareola of Linnaeus. 

 It cannot be confounded with the Tringa Ochropus, or green sand- 

 piper, by those who have had an opportunity of comparing them. It 

 differs materially from that bird by the superior length of the legs ; the 

 plumage too is very different when compared ; nor has it any of those 

 singular white marks under the wings, as in the green sandpiper, repre- 

 senting the letter V. The tail also in that bird is nearly even at the 

 tip, and is only partly barred ; whereas this is barred quite to the base, 

 is rather cuneiform, and the feathers more pointed than in that bird. 



In the specimen now before us, shot on the coast of south Devon, 

 early in the month of August, the outer feather of the tail on each side 

 is longer than the two succeeding ones, and equal in length to the 

 fourth, from which they gradually increase in length to the middle 

 ones, which exceed the outer by a quarter of an inch. Whether this 

 singular form of the tail is to be depended on as permanent, future 

 experience must determine, as at this season, when birds are moulting, 

 such a circumstance cannot be fully relied on, it being well known that 

 birds always lose the corresponding feathers of the tail and wings nearly 

 at the same time. 



