TOTANINJE. ACTITIS. 
97 
It is generally dispersed, and of common occurrence ; is re- 
j markable for its activity, and the vibrating movements of its 
body ; has a rapid devious flight, skimming over the water, 
j at intervals with stiffened and arched wings, and uttering its 
j loud shrill cries ; runs with great celerity ; is vigilant and 
rather suspicious, but easily approached within shooting dis- 
tance. The nest is a slight hollow in the sand, or among 
i) pebbles ; the eggs always four, enormously large, an inch and 
four-twelfths in length, an inch in breadth, broadly pyriform, 
j reddish- white or cream-coloured, glossy, and covered with 
dots and small spots of dark purplish-brown, and greyish- 
purple. After the young are fledged, they do not collect into 
large flocks, nor betake themselves to the sea-shore. Their 
food consists of insects and larvae. 
Common Sandpiper. Water Junket. Willy- wicket. Fid- 
dler. 
Tringa Hypoleucos, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 250. — Tringa Hy- 
poleucos, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 731. — Totanus Hypoleucos, 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. ii. 657.— Actitis Hypoleucos, White- 
breasted Weet-weet, MacGillivray Brit. Birds, iv. 
202. Actitis macularia. Spotted Weet-weet. 
Slightly inferior in size to the White-breasted species, 
which it precisely resembles in form ; with the bill dusky at 
the point, greenish-brown above, yellow beneath ; the upper 
parts glossy greenish-brown, the head longitudinally streaked, 
the rest transversely banded, with dark brown ; the lower 
parts white, marked all over with roundish dusky spots. 
Young with the upper parts lighter, the feathers of the head 
margined with dusky, the back and wings with more nume- 
rous dusky bars, the lower parts brownish-white, unspotted. 
Tringa Cinclus, in autumn, having black spots on the breast 
and sides, is apt to be mistaken for it. 
Male, 8, 13, 4 T %, i^-, H, tV 
This species is abundant in many parts of North America, 
where it is migratory, and frequents the margins of rivers and 
pools. Its habits, as detailed by the ornithologists of that 
country, are similar to those of our White-breasted Weet- 
weet, which it resembles so closely in form. Individuals have 
been shot on the continent of Europe, and a few are recorded 
to have been obtained in England. 
Spotted Sandpiper. 
