EASTEEN WOOD-SANDPIPER. 
white, the feathers of the lower-throat brown with white margins ; fore-neck and 
breast ash-grey, more or less barred with white ; the feathers on the sides of the 
body white, barred with brown Hke the under tail-coverts, but more sparsely on 
the latter ; middle of abdomen dull white ; axiUaries white, regularly barred with 
brown ; under wing-coverts brown, fringed with white, the greater series grey with 
white tips ; bill blackish-brown, base of lower mandible browm ; iris dark brown ; 
tarsi and feet light olive-brown. Total length 225 mm. ; culmen 31, wing 128, tail 
50, tarsus 37. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male but larger. 
Adult, in winter-plumage. Differs from the summer-dress in being more uniform on the 
head and hind-neck, and in having a well-pronounced white superciliary streak ; 
also in having the breast uniform grey. 
Nestling, in down. Upper-surface for the most part black, with longitudinal smoky-grey 
lines on the head, hind-neck, and back ; a narrow black loral streak which cuts 
through the eye on to the sides of the hinder-crown ; entire under-surface white. 
Nest. A depression in the earth. 
Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour bluish, covered more thickly at the larger end with 
large spots and blotches of dark purplish-red, and underlying ones of lavender ; 
axis 39, diameter 27. 
Breeding-season. May, June (Siberia, Middendorff). 
This bird was first added to the Australian List in 1896, when Vol. XXIV. 
of the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum was pubHshed, 
from birds collected by the late Bowyer Bower in North-west Australia. 
Mr. Mattingly in the Emu of ten years later recorded it from Victoria. I 
now extend its Austrahan distribution, as I have birds collected in North- 
west Australia : Northern Territory and Queensland. It can always be 
distinguished from Helodromas ocrophus Linne by the white shaft of its outer 
primary, wlnle the inner wing and axiUaries of the former are characteristic, 
and if once seen no mistake can ever be made between these two. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers collected specimens in the North-west of Austraha in 
1909. Their stomachs contained sheU-fish, grasshoppers, and a quantity of 
animal matter. 
Middendorff says : “ This bird arrived on the Boganida (70*^ N. lat.) 
on May 29th and bred there in large numbers. By the 12th of May we 
found it frequently on marshy ground, on the west slopes of the Stanovoi 
Mountains (Mar-Kolj) where it not only waded but also swam about. Later 
on, when it had paired, it perched on trees and piped a great deal. 
“ Nearer the ridge of the Stanovoi Mountains it disappeared, and we saw 
it again for the first time near Udskoj-Ostrog and on the sea-coast ; also on 
the large Schantar Island.” 
Schrenck writes : “ Although not so common as Totanus glottis, yet it is 
found aU along the Amur River .... The first specimen kiUed on 7/19 of 
JMay was in Spring plumage . . . the one shot on 3/15 August had very 
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