Strepsilas interpres, the Turnstone, has the head, rump, tail, and remiges black and white, the upper parts varied with chestnut and black, the breast black, the belly white, and the feet orange, with the hind toe turned inwards. In winter the coloration is chiefly grey and white. From its extensive migrations, it is possibly the most cosmopolitan of Birds, while it breeds in Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and as near us as Denmark, though not proved to do so in Britain. In autumn and spring this lively little species frequents our muddy shores or seaweed-covered rocks, often turning over the pebbles in search of food; the note is a twitter or whistle; the nest a slightly-lined excavation under shelter of some maritime shrub or stone, containing four grey-green eggs, marked with olive-brown. S. melanocephalus, of the Pacific coast of North America, lacks chestnut tints. Aphriza virgata, the Surf-bird, a brownish species with white alar bar, rump, and abdomen, found from Alaska to Chili, may perhaps be placed here. The position of the scarce Patagonian Pluvianellus sociabilis, which is chiefly grey above and white below, is equally doubtful. Both species lack the hallux. Haematopus ostralegus, the Oyster-catcher, inhabits Europe and Central Asia, extending–as the form H. osculans–to China and Japan; in winter it reaches Senegambia, Mozambique, Ceylon, and South China. From the black head, neck, and mantle, white lower back, underparts, wing-bar, and base of tail, it is called the Sea-Pie; while a habit of opening mussels with the long wedge-shaped bill gives it the name of Mussel-picker. Oyster-catcher seems a misnomer, but worms, crustaceans, and so forth vary the diet. It frequents shores and inland rivers, depositing three, or rarely four, oval drab eggs, with blackish and grey markings, on sand, shingle, or rocks. The scream in the breeding season is often quite deafening, but at other times these wary birds are seldom noisy. Their flight is powerful, and they can swim and dive. The bill is orange and the feet flesh-coloured in this species, as well as in H. longirostris of the Moluccas, Papuasia, Australia, and New Zealand, with longer bill and entirely black primaries. H. leucopus of Chili, Patagonia, and the Falklands, has a black lower back and pale feet; H. palliatus (with its races frazari, galapagensis, and durnfordi), ranging from Nova Scotia and California to Patagonia, has a brown mantle. Of the perfectly black or brownish-black species, H. niger, of both coasts of the North Pacific, has pale flesh-coloured feet; H. moquini, of the Ethiopian Region, the Canaries, and Madeira, has them deep red; H. ater, found from Peru to Patagonia and the Falklands, has the scarlet bill compressed and upturned; H. unicolor of Australia and New Zealand has the feet brick-red. This genus has three toes, as has the remarkable Ibidorhynchus struthersi, with long decurved red bill and greenish-grey feet, found from Turkestan to China, and in the Himalayas. The front of the head is black, margined laterally with white; the upper parts and neck are grey, with white on the wings and outer rectrices, and black undulations on the tail, which has the tip and coverts mostly black; the under parts are white with a black gorget. The bill is black in the young. The note is whistling, the habits are like those of an Oyster-catcher, while islands in stony or sandy rivers furnish breeding sites.[[187]]
Himantopus contains the extraordinarily long-legged Stilts, of which H. candidus visits Britain and Northern Europe, but breeds only in the southern parts, including Hungary. It also nests in India and Ceylon, and in Africa–though chiefly in the north. In the cold season it reaches Timor, New Zealand, and elsewhere. The head, long neck, lower back, and under surface are white, the remaining parts greenish-black; the iris is carmine, the legs are pink. Females are browner above, while immature males have the crown and nape black or brownish. The note is clear and reiterated, the habits are Plover-like, but the nest, placed on mud or in grass-tufts, is more substantial than in those birds, and contains four olive eggs with black scrawls or blotches. Whether searching the shallows for insects or other food, hovering overhead with dangling feet, or flying with them outstretched, the appearance is equally remarkable. H. mexicanus of temperate North America, migrating to Peru and Brazil, has a black occiput and nape; H. knudseni of the Sandwich Islands has the sides of the neck also black; H. brasiliensis of southern South America has the nape only black, with a white collar below; H. leucocephalus of Australia and New Zealand, which visits the Malay Islands, the Philippines, the Moluccas and Papuasia, is similar, but the black does not reach the eye; H. melas of New Zealand is uniform black. H. (Cladorhynchus) pectoralis of Southern Australia has webbed feet like the four-toed Avocets, though itself three-toed like other Stilts, from which a bay pectoral band distinguishes it. Of the Avocets with their curious up-curved beak, Recurvirostra andina, of the Chilian Andes, alone resembles the Stilts in possessing a black mantle. R. avocetta, which bred in England until at least 1824, now ranges from Denmark and Holland to Mongolia and South Africa, though decidedly local; in Asia it migrates southwards to Ceylon and Hainan. The plumage is white, with the crown, nape, inner scapulars, and part of the wings black, the legs light blue. It is called Cobbler's Awl, from its long, flexible bill, or Yelper, from its loud clear cry. Its general habits and slight nest recall those of Plovers, though the eggs are larger; while it seeks for aquatic creatures, in shallows or pools left by the tide, with a curious scooping sidelong action of the beak. R. americana, with a pale rufous head and neck, inhabits temperate America, extending in winter to the West Indies and Guatemala: A. rubricollis (novae hollandiae), with those portions chestnut, ranges from Australia, where it breeds, to New Zealand.
Sub-fam. 2.–The Tringinae of the present work–four-toed unless otherwise stated–are often separated into the groups Phalaropodinae, Totaninae, and Tringinae proper; the first being remarkable for the Coot-like digits with lobed webs. Phalaropus fulicarius, the Grey Phalarope, which visits us in winter, and has even reached Chili and New Zealand, breeds in Spitsbergen, Iceland, Greenland, Arctic America, and Asia. It is blackish and chestnut above and rufous below, with a little white on the face, wings, and tail; but the plumage differs remarkably in winter, the upper parts becoming grey with a black nuchal patch, and the lower white. As in all the genus, the female is said to court the male, which is duller, and performs most of the duties of incubation. The eggs are larger and rounder than in the next species, the nest less concealed. P. (Lobipes) hyperboreus, the Red-necked Phalarope, with more tapering bill, breeds in Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia, as well as from Alaska to Greenland, Iceland, Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides; it rarely migrates to Western Europe, but reaches India, New Guinea, Guatemala, and Peru. It has dark grey and rufous upper parts, a white alar bar, throat, and belly, a grey breast, and chestnut sides of the neck nearly meeting in front. By winter the red tints have vanished and the white has increased. This attractive little bird is often so tame that it will feed at the feet of an intruder, or will even proceed to settle itself on its small and rather deep nest, placed in some tuft of herbage; the four eggs are greenish-olive with black markings. When disturbed from them it flies around with a shrill reiterated "tweet." It breeds in swamps or by hill-lakes, and can swim well, but is not found so far out to sea as the Grey Phalarope. P. (Steganopus) wilsoni, of temperate North America, migrating as far as Patagonia and the Falklands, is a larger, longer-billed bird, with a white nape and a black stripe down each side of the head and neck.
Tringa alpina, the Dunlin or Oxbird, is familiar to most autumn visitors to our flatter coasts. Breeding not uncommonly in Britain, though chiefly in the north, it is found in the colder parts of both the Old and the New World, while exceptionally its eggs have been obtained in Southern Spain; in winter it extends to the Canaries, Zanzibar, India, China, California, and the West Indies. When first they arrive on the shore the large flocks are remarkably tame, and allow even gunners to walk among them, as they forage with head bent down over the mud or sand, or rise with a cheeping cry, only to alight again at close quarters. The slight nest, placed amongst heather or short grass on some moory hill-pasture or seaside marsh, contains four greenish-white eggs with brown or rufous spotting. The plumage exhibits a mixture of rufous, grey, and black above, and is chiefly white beneath, with a large, black, pectoral patch; the decurved bill and the feet are black. Most of the rufous and all the black disappear in winter. T. minuta, the Little Stint, a miniature Dunlin with no black on the breast, and a short, straight bill, visits Britain regularly on passage, and breeds from the coasts of Northern Norway and Russia to Arctic Asia, a red-throated species or race (T. ruficollis) occurring east of the Lena; in winter the birds reach South Africa, the Indian Region, Australia, and Tasmania. T. minutilla, the darker American Stint, with olive feet, which occupies the Arctic New World, has been obtained in England, and migrates at least as far as Ecuador and Brazil; the very similar Eastern Asiatic T. subminuta reaches Bering Island, and winters southwards to the Indian Region and Australia. The habits and eggs of the Little Stint resemble those of the Dunlin, but the latter are smaller; the note, too, is more like the twitter of a swallow. T. temmincki is greyish-brown above and more buff below, with dark markings throughout, white belly, alar bar and four outer rectrices. In winter the dusky markings vanish, and the birds resemble miniature Common Sandpipers. They frequently visit Britain, and breed in Northern Europe and Asia, chiefly beyond the limits of forest growth; migrating southwards to Senegambia, North-East Africa, India, the Malay countries, and China. Temminck's Stint has a hovering, butterfly-like flight, and habitually perches on posts and the like, uttering a continuous trilling note or song; the four buff or greyish-green eggs with their brown spotting are deposited on a little herbage among sedge or grass. T. subarquata, the Curlew-Sandpiper, is grey, black, and rufous, with chestnut under surface and black bars on the white rump, both these parts becoming white in winter; the bill is long and decurved. As far as is yet known, the breeding-quarters lie in the far north of Asia, eggs having recently (1897) been taken near the mouth of the Yenesei: but the bird occurs in Arctic Europe in spring and autumn, and visits our shores irregularly in company with other small waders in autumn, wandering occasionally to Eastern America and Alaska, and migrating to Cape Colony, India, and Tasmania. T. fuscicollis, Bonaparte's Sandpiper, with white upper tail-coverts, but dusky rump and short bill, inhabits Arctic America, reaching the whole of South America in winter, and even straying to Britain. It has also occurred in Franz Josef Land in summer. It somewhat resembles the Dunlin in appearance, and the Purple Sandpiper in habits. The closely allied T. bairdi of nearly all America, which breeds towards the North, is distinguished by the median tail-coverts being brownish; it has once been observed in South Africa. Another dark-rumped species is T. maculata, the Pectoral Sandpiper, blackish-brown and rufous above, and buff with dusky streaks beneath, the belly being white. It has occurred several times in Britain, but inhabits the "Barren Grounds" from Alaska to Hudson's Bay, and migrates as far as Patagonia. Four greenish-buff eggs with brown blotches are deposited in dry grassy spots. The male is especially remarkable for his habit, apparently unique in the Family, of inflating the oesophagus during his courting performances, until it hangs down like a bag; meanwhile he takes short flights or rises with stiffened wings in the air, uttering a muffled booming note.[[188]] The Old World form, T. acuminata, extends from East Siberia to Alaska, migrating to the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand; it differs in its white chin and distinctly streaked flanks. T. maritima or striata, the Purple Sandpiper, is brownish-grey above, with rufous spotting on the blacker mantle, and some white on the wing; the throat and breast are greyish with dusky streaks, the abdomen is white. In winter, when the upper parts are purplish-black and the breast is unspotted, it occurs from Scandinavia and temperate America to the Mediterranean and the Bermudas, arriving in Britain later than its congeners, and frequenting spray-washed, seaweed-covered rocks in search of small molluscs. It is usually tame, can swim well, and utters a soft low note. The eggs, often of a very green ground-colour, are deposited in mossy or grassy places on hill-tops, from the Färoes northwards, though in the more Arctic regions of Europe and Eastern America the bird breeds at the sea-level. It nests in Franz Josef Land, but is rare in Asia. The Prybilof Island form has been called T. ptilocnemis, the Alaskan T. couesi. T. canutus, the Knot, possibly, but not probably, named after Canute, has in summer a reddish head and neck, black, cinnamon, and white upper parts, chestnut under surface, and white tail-coverts barred with black. The plumage varies greatly according to age and season, but the winter adult is grey above and white with dusky flecks below. While no absolutely identified eggs exist, this species undoubtedly breeds on the North Georgian or Parry Islands, Melville Peninsula, Grinnell Land, Smith's Sound, and Lady Franklin Bay, but apparently not in Arctic Europe, though possibly in Asia. Large flocks migrate to our shores, and some individuals reach Brazil, Damara-Land, the Indian Region, Australia, and New Zealand; they are tame on arrival and used to be netted for the table in England. In Arctic America Saxifraga oppositifolia and Algae vary the diet of insects and molluscs, but other Sandpipers are known to eat plants. The East Siberian T. crassirostris, with no chestnut beneath, migrates to Japan, the Indian Region, and Australia.
Ereunetes pusillus, called the Semipalmated Sandpiper from its partly webbed toes, resembles the western form of the Little Stint in coloration; it breeds in the extreme north of America, and has reached Patagonia in winter. Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, on the other hand, is coloured like the eastern red-throated Little Stint, but is especially remarkable for its large, broad, shovel-shaped bill. The breeding grounds are not known, but it has been obtained on both sides of the North Pacific, and on migration in Japan, China, India, and Burma. Calidris arenaria, the Sanderling, easily recognisable by the want of a hind-toe, is rufous and black above, and white below, having a chestnut throat spotted with black. It reaches us in August, while some individuals remain throughout the winter, being at that season uniform grey with white under surface. The eggs, which have a peculiar greenish tint, and are like those of the Curlew in miniature, have been taken in Greenland and Arctic America, but, except perhaps in Iceland, never yet in Northern Europe or Asia. Sanderlings are almost as cosmopolitan as Turnstones, and on migration are commonly observed running at the edge of the surf, uttering a weak, shrill cry. Limicola platyrhyncha, the Broad-billed Sandpiper, has a wide flat beak with the pointed tip slightly decurved; the upper plumage is mottled with dark brown, rufous, and white; the breast is reddish-white, spotted with brown; the abdomen white. It occasionally visits Britain, and breeds on the fells of Norway, the fens of Lapland, and thence eastwards to Russia, but is rarely met with in Asia until the Sea of Okhotsk is reached; in winter, when it becomes grey above and white below, it resorts to North Africa, Madagascar, Ceylon, the Philippines, the Moluccas, and China. It soars like a Snipe, utters a rapid, double note, and is somewhat skulking. The parent sits very closely on the eggs, in which the greenish or buff ground-colour is commonly nearly hidden by chocolate or rufous markings. Tryngites rufescens, the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, which has wandered to Britain and Heligoland, breeds in the extreme north of America, and just reaches East Siberia; in winter it ranges to Peru and Argentina. Light brown and black above, and reddish-buff with a few black spots below, the distinctive black marblings beneath the quills are well seen as the bird, according to its habit, runs along with one wing raised.
Here may be mentioned Aechmorhynchus cancellatus (parvirostris), of Christmas and Paumotu Islands in the Pacific, which is rufous-brown with white under surface mostly barred with brown; and Prosobonia leucoptera, Latham's White-winged Sandpiper, from Tahiti and Eimeo, with brown head and mantle, chestnut rump and lower parts, white wing-patch and superciliary streak–species of doubtful affinity, which are both presumably extinct.
The large genus Totanus is more inland in its haunts during the breeding season than Tringa. T. calidris, the Redshank, is resident in Britain, and ranges through Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia south of lat. 60° N., migrating to South Africa, the Indian Region, and Japan. The upper parts are light brown with darker bars and streaks, the primaries being black; the rump, secondaries, tail, and lower surface are white, but the two latter are barred with blackish and flecked with brown respectively; the feet are orange-red, or yellowish in the young. In winter the colour is ashy-grey, with nearly white under parts. This bird breeds in salt marshes or swamps, not uncommonly far inland, and deposits four buff eggs with reddish or purplish-brown spots in grass or rush-tufts, making little or no nest, but drawing the herbage together over the spot to conceal it. Both parents usually rise a long way ahead of the intruder, and fly wildly round, uttering their shrill whistling cry of "pitotoi." Redshanks are especially wary on the coast in winter, and, like Curlews or Lapwings, are the bane of the shooter; they can swim and dive, and not uncommonly perch on trees; the food, procured on sandy spots or sea-weed-covered rocks, consists of molluscs, crustaceans, worms, and aquatic insects. T. fuscus, the Dusky or Spotted Redshank, a scarce visitor to our shores, breeds in Europe and Asia, chiefly north of the Arctic Circle, and has a similar winter range to its congener. It generally nests in forest-clearings some way from water, and lays fine greenish eggs, blotched with varied browns. The female sits very closely. Less noisy than its kindred, unless accompanied by young, it flies comparatively strongly, perches on trees, and recalls the Greenshank by its habits. The plumage is black, with white spots above, white rump and barred tail; in winter it resembles that of the Redshank, and the crimson legs become orange-red. T. flavipes, the Yellowshank, which has wandered to England, inhabits the colder parts of North America, and migrates as far as Patagonia; it is black, grey-brown, and white above, and white with dusky markings below, the legs being bright yellow. T. melanoleucus, of the same districts, is similar, but larger. T. guttifer is a rare North Pacific species, recorded in winter from Calcutta and Burma. It is not unlike T. glottis, the Greenshank, which ranges over Northern Europe and Asia, and extends in winter to Cape Colony, the Indian Region, and Australia. This bird has wandered to America, and breeds in the hill-districts of Scotland, resembling the Dusky Redshank in its selection of dry nesting sites, habit of perching, and so forth. It is, however, much more noisy, uttering a strident note, or one dimly recalling a Woodpecker, while it lays large, buffish-white eggs with rich brown blotches. It sometimes eats small fish, as does its congener T. incanus. The plumage is grey and black above in summer and grey in winter, with white rump and tail, the latter being barred with dusky; the white breast is spotted with brown in the breeding season; the slightly up-turned beak is blackish; the legs are olive. T. stagnatilis, the Marsh Sandpiper, a miniature Greenshank of somewhat similar winter range, occupies South Europe and Central Asia. T. glareola, the Wood Sandpiper, is olive-brown above, with small whitish spots and white rump; the white cheeks, fore-neck, and breast are heavily streaked with brown; the tail-feathers and axillaries are also white with black bars and brown flecks respectively, the feet are olive. The nest has once at least been found in Britain, whence the bird ranges over North Europe and Asia; it has apparently bred in Spain and Italy, and migrates to Cape Colony, the Indian Region, and Australia. In this species and the following the note is shrill and often tremulous, while the former occasionally, and the latter habitually, lays its greenish eggs with reddish-brown spots in deserted nests of other birds near inland waters, instead of on the ground. T. ochropus, the Green Sandpiper, which is less spotted above, has much wider black tail-bars, and blackish axillaries with white chevrons. It has been suspected of breeding in Britain, and occupies a similar though somewhat more northern range than the last-named, but does not reach Australia. T. solitarius, with almost uniform brown median rectrices, inhabits temperate, and migrates to tropical, South America; it has been shot in the littoral marshes of western England. T. (Symphemia) semipalmatus, largest of the genus, the Willet of temperate North America, which extends to Brazil in winter and wanders to Europe, is brownish-grey with black mottlings, the outspread wing shewing a white patch, and the white under parts brownish streaks. In the cold season all the dark markings vanish. T. (Heteractitis) incanus, having uniform grey upper, and white under surface, closely barred in summer with dusky, is found through the Eastern Pacific Islands, and on the mainland from Alaska to the Galápagos. T. brevipes, with white-banded upper tail-coverts, occurs from Kamtschatka and East Siberia to the Malay Islands and Australia. Both breed to the northward.
Machetes pugnax, the Ruff–with its consort the Reeve–was formerly well-known in England from the large numbers netted or snared for the table. Our nesting birds are now reduced to a few pairs, but considerable numbers visit us on passage, while they breed through northern Europe and Asia, and migrate to South Africa, the Indian region, and Japan, wandering rarely to Iceland and Eastern America. The Ruff's nuptial plumage, which varies extraordinarily and individually, may be chiefly black, white, chestnut, buff, grey and white, and so forth, often with metallic hues or concentric barring. A tuft of stiff curled plumes springs from near each ear, the feathers of the face are replaced by yellowish or pinkish tubercles, and an ample distensible ruff overhangs the breast. Males regain the same colours annually, but after breeding become like the females, which are dark brown and buff, and one-third smaller. The polygamous tendencies and habit of "hilling," i.e. sparring on some slight eminence for the Reeves, have been frequently described;[[189]] the note, though seldom heard, is said to resemble ka-ka-kuk; the food includes seeds, insects, and worms; the nest, placed among herbage in the drier parts of a swamp, contains four greenish, snipe-like eggs, with rich brown blotches. The Ruff performs many antics while courting, but leaves all the work of building, incubation, and the care of the young to his mate.
Bartramia longicauda, which accidentally visits Britain, Continental Europe, and even Australia, inhabits North America, and migrates southward to Chili and Argentina. It is light brown above, varied with black, buff, and white, the long wedge-shaped tail and the under surface of the wing are barred, the rufous lower parts spotted, with black. The throat and belly are white. In winter it is a shy bird, crouching, running with jerks of the tail, or taking short flights; it utters a soft whistle, and lays pinkish-yellow eggs with brown spots in a slight nest on cultivated lands.
Actitis hypoleucus, the Common Sandpiper, breeds in many parts of Britain, and ranges from the Arctic Circle in Europe and Asia to the Atlantic Islands, the Mediterranean, the Himalayas, and Japan; it leaves us before winter, however, and migrates to most of the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions. The coloration is greenish-brown above, with dusky markings, and some white on the wings and tail; the breast is grey with dark streaks, the belly white. In winter the upper parts are more uniform. Rapid pebbly streams with islands, or flat stretches of sand are the birds' favourite resorts, where their shrill whistle and somewhat Wagtail-like habits make them very conspicuous; they fly, run, perch, or swim with equal ease. The nest, usually partly sheltered by rough vegetation or drifted rubbish, contains four reddish-buff eggs with brown and lilac spotting. A. macularius, the Spotted Sandpiper of North America generally, found in winter southwards to Amazonia and Brazil, is smaller, with round black spots beneath in summer; it lacks the nearly white eighth and ninth secondaries of its congener.