The green sandpiper is only an accidental visitor to North America. Swainson and Richardson (1831) record it from Hudson Bay, but this is now generally acknowledged to be probably due to error. However, Dr. T. M. Brewer (1878) mentions a specimen obtained at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1872 or 1873 and forming part of a collection made there which was purchased by J. E. Harting from a dealer at Woolwich. The evidence is far from satisfactory and Seebohm’s remarks (1884) should be consulted, but the skins in question are still in existence in the collection of the British Museum.

Courtship.—It is a most remarkable fact that though the green sandpiper is widely distributed during the breeding season over temperate Europe and is by no means a shy or retiring bird, even though it haunts the recesses of wooded marshes and wet forests, yet there is hardly anything on record about its courtship activities. Seebohm writes that the notes “are no doubt modulated into a musical trill as the male performs his amatory excursions in the air during the pairing season,” but adds that he has never had the good fortune either to hear the love song or to find it described. Fortunately Prof. C. J. Patten (1906) met with a pair which frequented a moorland stream in the neighborhood of Sheffield from May 3 to June 4, 1903. He says:

They were always to be found in the same spot, and after feeding they frequently flitted on to a stone wall, where for a little while they would remain motionless. At intervals they suddenly shot up into the air for a short distance, darting down again to the same stone with astonishing speed. On the wing they displayed great activity and adroitness, the female twisting and turning to escape the addresses of the male.

Newton (1896) writes:

Yet in the breeding season, even in England, the cock bird has been seen to rise high in air and perform a variety of evolutions on the wing, all the while piping what without any violence of language may be called a song.

Doctor Hartert (1920), speaking of its habits on its breeding grounds, remarks that it may be seen shooting through the air with the speed of an arrow, and opines that this must be the love flight. With the exception of these notes and some references to the song (which are referred to under the heading of Voice), I can find nothing in the literature with regard to the actual courtship, except Hartert’s statement that on the ground the male trips about, with tail outspread like a fan, calling loudly. When, however, a pair has definitely settled down in its breeding territory, both birds are exceedingly noisy and demonstrative. Wheelwright (1864) speaks of the “boisterous, noisy behavior” of this bird, and in his later work on Sweden (1865) remarks:

Now, of all our waders, this is the noisiest, and there is little trouble in finding the locality where it breeds, for the old male is always about some brook in the neighborhood, and I have before noticed that the loud, wild cry of the green sandpiper and greenshank are much alike.

Nesting.—The nesting habits of the green sandpiper have been fully described, but were practically unknown to naturalists till about 1852–1860, when quite independently Forester, Weise, and Hintz (sen.), in Germany, and H. W. Wheelwright in Sweden, published the results of their discoveries. The story is told in detail by Forest-Inspector Weise, in the Journal für Ornithologie for 1855 (p. 514). He had first heard of the habit of adopting old nests of other species in trees from an old ranger, but naturally discredited it. However, in 1845, the same man brought him four sandpipers’ eggs from a nest in an old beech. Next spring Weise found a green sandpiper breeding in a pine about 25 or 30 feet from the ground. He climbed to the nest and found the four eggs so highly incubated that the young could be heard squeaking inside the shells. Two other nests in similar sites came to his notice subsequently, the last on May 25, 1855, when the four eggs were already chipped.

Forester, W. Hintz 1, writing in the same periodical for 1862 (p. 460) says that he had found sandpipers’ nests in trees as far back as 1818, but at that time he had no correspondents who took any interest in birds’ eggs and only took a clutch or two for his own collection. On April 26, 1834, he found a clutch of this species in a nest of the song thrush (Turdus philomelus) and from 1852 onward, as the circumstances began to be known to German naturalists, he found a long series of nests with eggs of which he gives full details. Most of these eggs were laid in old nests of song thrush (Turdus philomelus), but some were placed in old nests of pigeon (probably Columba palumbus) or squirrel’s dreys, and in one case the young were found in an old nest of red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio). Another curious case recorded is that in which an old aspen (Populus tremula) was broken off and a hole which had been occupied in the previous year by a pied flycatcher, contained a brood of young green sandpipers, which had apparently only been hatched half an hour before. On the forester’s approach the young birds jumped from the hole and concealed themselves among the grass. Some further details are also given in a letter from Hintz sent to the Rev. H. S. Hawkins and published in Dresser’s Birds of Europe; also in the Journal für Ornithologie for 1864 (p. 186).

Summarizing these we find that the birds arrive on their nesting grounds in Germany from the beginning to the middle of April, choosing wooded localities in marshy districts with pools or slow-flowing streams in the neighborhood. Old nests of song thrush, blackbird, mistle thrush, red-backed shrike, and half-ruined nests of jay, woodpigeon, or squirrel are all adopted from time to time. Occasionally the eggs are laid in a hollow where dead leaves and pine needles have accumulated, and holes formerly used by starlings and flycatchers have been taken possession of. The height from the ground varies considerably, some nests may be as much as 35 or 40 feet above the ground while others are only a few feet up. The distance from the nearest water is also variable, as though most nests are within 500 yards, yet occasionally the birds have been known to nest half a mile away.

Meantime H. W. Wheelwright in Sweden had met with an exactly similar state of things, and in the Field newspaper of August 18, 1860, described the tree-nesting habits of this species. The editor, who was ignorant of the evidence of Weise and Hintz, openly expressed his doubts as to the accuracy of the observations, but Wheelwright stuck manfully to his facts and subsequently the editor admitted his mistake. The republication of Wheelwright’s notes in Sweden in 1866 elicited further evidence from Jagmaster Lundborg, who had on one occasion taken the eggs from what appeared to be an old squirrel’s drey or nest. The only important difference in the habits of the bird in the two countries appears to be that nests of the hooded crow (Corvus c. cornix) are freely used in Sweden and also those of the fieldfare (Turdus pilaris).

Like the greenshank, the green sandpiper has a great attachment to certain localities and in some cases the identical nest has been used for two consecutive seasons. In a district where the birds are not scarce, this naturally renders the discovery of the nest much more simple to the resident, and explains the success of Forester Hintz and others in discovering the eggs. Very little in the way of addition appears to be made by the sandpipers to their adopted home and the pine needles which are noted in the interior of old thrushes’ nests may well have dropped from the adjacent trees in the ordinary way.

Eggs.—These are normally four in number, pyriform in shape, rather thin shelled and, as compared with those of the wood sandpiper, generally large and pale in coloring, showing more of the ground colors and fewer markings. The ground color varies from some shade of pale greenish or greenish grey to warm creamy, buffish stone color and light yellowish red. The markings are generally rather fine and in the reddish eggs are rich purplish brown, shading into very dark brown, while in the greenish eggs they are generally less reddish and more purplish in tone. Numerous fine speckles are characteristic and there are generally also some underlying shell marks of violet or ashy. The measurements of 100 eggs average 39.11 by 28.04 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 42 by 28, 41.1 by 30.3, 34.6 by 26, and 34.8 by 25.7 millimeters.

Young.—As to the shares of the sexes in incubation, there are references to females shot from the nest and males on guard in the neighborhood, but how far this has been confirmed by dissection and how much is surmise it is not easy to say. The incubation period is also unknown. When the young are hatched their stay in the nest is very short. Besides Hintz’s observation, quoted above, of recently hatched young jumping from the nest into the grass on his approach. Wheelwright also found on one occasion four very small young, apparently not a day old, at the foot of a fir, while in the nest overhead were the empty shells, still wet inside. In this case the early abandonment of the nest was not due to human interference. On another occasion Hintz found three young and a chipped egg in a squirrel’s drey about 30 feet up in a birch. The young birds sprang from the nest and alighted on the ground without injuring themselves, concealing themselves at once among the grass.

Plumages.—The molts and plumages are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920), to which the reader is referred.

Food.—The main food of this species consists of insects, especially small coleoptera and their larvae, but larval forms of other water insects such as the Phryganeidae are also taken and also larvae of Diptera. Other substances recorded include wood lice, spiders, and not infrequently the very small red worms, which are to be met with on the edges of stagnant pools, but apparently not common earthworms. Traces of vegetable matter are also recorded. H. Stevenson also includes small fresh-water mollusca, and W. Farren, algae, tender shoots of plants and on the seashore thin shelled Crustacea.

Behavior.—The green sandpiper may be met with in the British Islands in almost every month of the year except perhaps June, when it is decidedly rare, though only a few individuals stay with us through the winter. As some birds have undoubtedly stayed through the summer, breeding has been suspected on several occasions, but the evidence has always been unsatisfactory. It occurs most frequently in spring and autumn, sometimes singly and sometimes (especially in autumn), in family parties, haunting the margins of brooks and ponds.

They are much more deliberate in their movements than the common sandpiper and search the mud very thoroughly, boring into it with the bill, probably in search of the small red worms on which they feed. Without being especially shy, they have their wits about them and frequently the piping note which they utter when well on the wing (not just prior to rising) is the first indication of their presence to the shooter. The striking contrast of color between the dark greenish mantle and the snow white rump and tail coverts render its recognition a fairly simple matter. From the wood sandpiper it can be readily distinguished if a glimpse can be caught of the undersurface of the wing, for in the green sandpiper the axillars are very dark, looking almost black, whereas in the wood sandpiper they appear almost white with faint barrings.

Voice.—With regard to the notes, during the breeding season the alarm is given by a loud sharp call which is variously written as gik, giff, yick, yeck, etc., somewhat recalling the nuthatches’ call. Christoleit also describes a pairing song, which bears some resemblance to that of the other sandpipers, but does not make it clear whether it is uttered on the wing or on the ground. In forested country it is naturally not so easy to settle a point of this kind as in open country. The full song is written by him as: Tittittitluidich-luidich titluidie titluidie titluidie-titt-titt. Probably this is the love song and forms part of the courtship, but we still await a connected history of the courtship of this species.

Fall.—Hintz noticed the last birds on their German breeding grounds up to July 25, and it is about the middle of July when the first immigrants appear in the British Isles. The great majority of our visitors have left by November. During the period of its stay it is rarely to be met with on the seashore, but nearly always makes its way inland by means of the water courses, preferring a sheltered brookside or an inland pool to the open marshes.

Winter.—The evidence of wintering in South Africa rests entirely on some old records by Layard, unsupported by skins, but the winter quarters undoubtedly extend to Angola, British Central Africa, and Portuguese East Africa. Unlike so many waders it does not associate in large flocks, but generally is found singly or in small parties on inland waters in preference to the coast. Large numbers winter in Egypt and a good many at suitable spots in the Mediterranean Region. In Luzon (Philippine Islands) Whitehead found it common in December in Benguet, at a height of 4,000 feet, and on Rumenzon it has been met with at 6,000 feet, while in Abyssinia, Jesse describes it as common on the highlands, but did not meet with it on the coast.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.—Northern Europe; but very sparingly in Norway up to Nordland; in Sweden more generally north to the Arctic Circle; Finland to 63° 10´; North Russia south of the White Sea and on the Kamin Peninsula (66° 50´). Southward it breeds in the Baltic Republics, in North Germany (Holstein?, Oldenburg?, Hanover, Mark Brandenburg, Pommern, West and East Prussia, Silesia); sparingly in Bavaria; Czechoslovakia (Bohemia), Galizia and the Carpathians; possibly occasionally in Jutland, but records from South France and North Italy can not be relied on. In Asia it breeds across the continent in the valleys of the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, etc., south to Turkestan and Transcaspia.

Winter Range.—The main winter quarters lie in southern Europe and Africa where it ranges south to Portuguese East Africa, British Central Africa, and Angola, perhaps even to the Cape (Layard) and in Asia to Iraq, India, Ceylon, the Andamans, Burma, Cochin China, China, Hainan, Formosa, and the Malay Archipelago (Philippines).

Spring Migration.—In February and March it passes north through Morocco from its African winter quarters, and in Tunisia is most abundant on spring passage in March and April, while its stay in equatorial Africa does not extend beyond March. In the marshes of Iraq it stays till mid May, the spring in North Asia being later than in West Europe. This is also the case in India, where they do not leave till about mid May. In southeast China they pass in the first half of April, usually singly. It has been noted on passage in Corsica in April (late date May 28); some winter on the Balearic Isles where it has been noted up to the end of May, while in Cyprus it is found on passage in March, April, and May (birds seen in Greece on 25th July and in South China on 11th and 24th July were either nonbreeders or extraordinarily early migrants southward). The first arrivals reach their breeding grounds in Germany about the end of March, and in the Baltic states they arrive about the end of March or early April.

Fall migration.—Leaving their breeding grounds in Central Europe about the end of July, they pass the Straits of Gibraltar about August–September and in Greece arrive in some numbers in September. In the Iraq marshes the arrival takes place during August, while in India it sometimes comes during the latter half of July, but more frequently in August. In southeastern China the first arrivals come in about the end of July or early in August, but the main body passes in September or October. In Burma it is generally distributed during the winter months, but apparently does not range down the Malay Peninsula.

Casual records.—It is a winter visitor to Japan and occurs occasionally on the Canaries, but the record from Mauritius must be regarded as doubtful, and that from Australia by R. Hall is due to confusion with T. glareola. Gould’s record from Borneo is also doubtful and the American records can only be received with some suspicion.

Egg dates.—In Germany out of some 25 records only five fall between April 15 and 24. From May 2 to 15 there are nine records, from May 18 to 29 five records, and from June 1 to 23, six records. Probably most of these late dates are due to birds laying again which have been previously robbed. In Sweden all dates fall between May 6 and June 20 (13 records) and of these eight fall between May 6 and May 21. The second half of May is the usual time in the southern Provinces, but in the north and Finland few eggs are laid before June. In Siberia eggs may be found till the first half of July.