400 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Genus BMjODROM. AS, Kaup. 
741. HELODROMAS OCHROPUS. 
THE GREEN SANDPIPER. 
Tringa ocrophus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250. Actitis ochropus, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 
p. 098 Bl. B. Burm. p. 155. Totanus ochropus, Hume, S. F. iii. p. 183 ; 
Dresser, Birds Eur. viii. p. 135, pi. ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 465 ; Anders. 
Yunnan Kvped. p. 679 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 462 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 113 ; 
Scully, S. F. viii. p. 357 Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 862 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 197; 
Oates, S. F. x. p. 240. Helodromas ochropus, List Brit. Birds, Brit. O rn. 
Union, p. 174. • 
Description. — Winter plumage. Forehead^ crown, nape and hind neck 
ashy brown ; back, scapulars, tertiaries and wing-coverts ashy brown, each 
feather with a series of whitish spots on the edges of both webs ; primaries 
and secondaries brown ; rump brown ; upper tail-coverts pure white ; tail 
with the base white, the remainder white barred broadly with black, the 
bars becoming lost on the outermost feathers, which are nearly all white ; 
chin and upper throat pure white ; a brown streak from the bill to the eye 
and a whitish supercilium ; sides of face and neck, fore neck and breast 
white with dusky streaks ; remainder of the lower plumage white ; axilla- 
ries and under wing-coverts dark brown narrowly barred with white. 
In summer the head and hind neck become streaked with greyish white, 
the upper plumage is darker, and the fore neck, breast and sides of the 
neck are more densely streaked with brown. 
Iris dark brown ; terminal half of bill dark brown, basal half dusky 
green; legs and toes pale dull green; claws dark horn-colour. 
Length 9"5 inches, tail 2*6, wing 5*9, tarsus 1'4, bill from gape I'S. The 
female is of about the same size. 
The Green Sandpiper is not very common, but it is generally spread 
over the Province in the winter.- Mr. Davison failed to meet with it in 
Tenasserim ; but this was due to accident, for both Dr. Armstrong and 
Mr. Davis procured it in the northern part of that Division. 
It occurs, according to season, throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, 
extending south-east in the latter continent as far as Cochin China, but 
apparently not down the Malay peninsula or into the archipelago. It 
breeds in Northern Asia and Europe, some birds, however, remaining in 
Central Asia and China for this purpose. 
I have generally found this Sandpiper in paddy-fields in company with 
Snipe, and I have comparatively seldom seen it on the banks of streams. 
It has the remarkable habit of depositing its eggs in the deserted nests of 
other birds in trees. 
