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 Glareoki of Linnaeus. 
It cannot be confounded with the Tringa Ocliropus^ 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. 
