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, excejDt 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, Linn^us.) — *A genus of climbers, 
(^ScansoreS) Cuvier,) of Avhich we have the Hickwall, the Poppinjay, 
the Whitwall, besides two stragglers.* 
WOOD PIGEON. — A name for the Ring Dove. 
WOOD SANDPIPER (^Totanus glareola, 
*Tolanus Glareola, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 2. p. 654. — Tringa Glareola, Linn. Syst. 
1. p. 250. 13. y8. — Fauna Suec. No. 184 Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 177. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. 2. p. 130. No. 13 — Retz. Fauna Suec. 186. 155. — Wood Sandpiper, Arct. 
Zool. 2. p. 482. A. — Lath. Syn. 5. p. 172. 13. — Flem. 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 
