The only record of this species within North American limits is due to Chase Littlejohn (1904), who obtained a single specimen on May 27, 1894, on Sanak Island, Alaska.

Courtship.—Our information on this point is somewhat scanty. The song flight has of course been frequently described and observed, but the actual courtship of the female can only be observed under somewhat difficult conditions and there must be a considerable element of luck in any case where it can be closely studied. All the evidence hitherto obtained goes to show that it is carried on in much the same way as that of the common sandpiper (Tringa hypoleucos), but the song flight forms a much more conspicuous part of the proceedings. When the male alights he has a habit of elevating his wings for a moment, until, as Seebohm says, they almost meet overhead, much as Temminck’s stint also does. Apparently this forms part of the display before the hen, but the male may also be seen running by the side of the female with drooping wings. One can as a rule only get a momentary glimpse and generally at a considerable distance. The love song is, however, quite another matter. On the heaths of West Jutland one can see the males in rapid flight even from the windows of the trains, while in North Finland the loud musical leero,leero, leero, is one of the most familiar sounds in the wood-fringed marshes. John Hancock (1874), who by persevering search found the only nest which has ever been discovered in the British Isles, in June 1853, gives a very graphic account of it. He was on a visit to Prestwick Car, in Northumberland, at that time undrained, and as he says:

About 3 o’clock our dogs, a retriever and a setter, raised a bird about 50 yards in advance of us, which at once rose to a considerable height coursing about, rising and sinking somewhat in the manner of a snipe, and like it, while sweeping downwards with outstretched, tremulous wings, produced a peculiar drumming note, but one much shriller than that of the snipe, and almost amounting to a sort of musical whistle. From the strangeness of the actions and peculiar whistling or drumming note, I was convinced that we had met with a rare bird, and that its nest was near at hand. The birds were still in view flying about; our only chance now was to watch the bird to its nest. It was not long before one of the birds “pitched” and after allowing a little time for it to settle I went forth to raise it, but did not succeed. The bird, however, was soon in the air again flying about as before. The watching dodge was again tried and this time the bird was marked to, and raised from the nest. There lay the nest, with its four pretty eggs, on the side of a dry hillock where grew some heath and grass in the midst of a swampy spot.

One of the parents was subsequently shot by Mr. Reay to authenticate the identification, and the specimen is still extant. Seebohm (1884) also describes the song flight, but it is difficult to reconcile his account with the facts. According to him:

The note which the male utters during the pairing season is much more of a song than that of the grasshopper warbler, which it somewhat resembles; it is a monotonous tit-it-it, begun somewhat low and slow, as the bird is descending in the air with fluttering upraised wings, becoming louder and more rapid and reaching its climax as the bird alights on the ground or on a rail, or sometimes on the bare branch of a willow, the points of its trembling wings almost meeting over its head when its feet find support. This song is a by no means unmusical trill, and has an almost metallic ring about it.

The comparison to the trill of the grasshopper warbler seems very far fetched, and would apply far better to the persistent trilling of Temminck’s stint. In fact the note reads like a paragraph drafted from filed notes jotted down when the writer was surrounded by singing stints and sandpipers; the metallic and musical song and dashing flight being that of the wood sandpiper and the monotonous trill being that of Temminck’s stint. To my ear the Finnish name of the bird, “liro,” exactly describes the ringing musical cadence which one hears overhead so frequently by the lake sides and marshes of Sweden and Finland. Buturlin notes the song as peri, peri, logi, logi, logi, and von Droste’s translation is also expressive hithitit-tli-a, tli-a, tli-a, tlia. It is obvious that this bears no likeness whatever to the monotonous droning note, rising and falling slightly as the bird turns its head, of Locustella naevia. Occasionally the song of the wood sandpiper is uttered while the bird is perched on a bush or in treeless districts even on the ground.

Nesting.—Although often not concealed with any art, the nest of the wood sandpiper is by no means an easy one to find, as the possible area is so vast, while the sitting bird frequently remains on the eggs until almost trodden on. In consequence most nests are discovered by accident, when the bird has been flushed at one’s feet, or by long and systematic beating of likely ground in the neighborhood of a singing male. The nest is, however, almost invariably on some slight eminence, a hummock in some cases as much as 2 feet high, though often smaller, and on dry ground, though there may be water within a foot or so. The actual nest is merely a hollow in the ground, lined with bents and grasses and is usually to be found on low-lying ground where willow scrub, heath mosses, and rank grasses furnish a certain amount of cover. This is the normal European site, but H. Leyborne Popham (1897), while collecting on the Yenisei in 1895, found that out of five nests discovered in that season, only one was placed on the ground, while the eggs in the other four cases were laid in the numerous old nests of fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and other thrushes which were to be seen in great numbers in the trees. In 1900 Mr. Popham (1901) was able to confirm these observations, for in the forest district two more clutches were taken from old thrushes’ nests, while at the edge of the tundra two nests were found on the ground. That this habit is not strictly confined to the forest districts of Asia was proved by Lieut. S. A. Davies (1895), who visited the upper waters of the River Muonio on the borders of Finland and Sweden in 1904. He obtained a clutch from an old nest of great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor excubitor), placed in the fork of a birch about 20 feet from the ground. A. Cnattingius also found the eggs on one occasion in Sweden in a fieldfare’s nest, 8 feet from the ground. There is some evidence that in certain parts of the range this species breeds almost in colonies. Collett has described a case of this kind from the high field of southern Norway, and Forester Hintz (sen.) writes that on one marshy flat of about 60 acres in Mecklenberg from 7 to 9 pairs were breeding, and that on May 25, 1858, he received no fewer than 26 fresh and partly incubated eggs from this locality.

Eggs.—These are normally four in number, pyriform in shape and thin shelled. The ground color varies from a beautiful pale green to creamy white and exceptionally to warm buff. They are spotted and blotched, more heavily at the large end, with warm reddish brown, some eggs have most of the markings small, but others have large and almost confluent blotches. There are also a few purplish brown shell marks. The measurements of 100 eggs average 38.34 by 26.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 42 by 28.1, 41.5 by 28.5, 35.5 by 25 and 37 by 24.4 millimeters.

Young.—Both sexes take part in incubation; all the birds shot by Popham from the nest in 1895 were males, but in 1900 he found that out of two killed one was a male and the other a female. Collett also notes that both sexes have incubation patches. When the young are hatched the parents display the greatest anxiety, but the male bird seems to take the greater share in brooding and guarding them. On one occasion H. J. Pearson (1904) surprised a bird with four young only about a day old in a marsh. He placed the young in his pocket after having spent half an hour in finding them, though they were fully exposed to view and all within 10 yards. The young soon began to cry out and the parent bird, which he surmised to be the male, followed him nearly a mile, often settling within 5 feet and expressing his views. He then flew back to the marsh, but actually returned and settled on a low shed near the house. Lieut. S. A. Davies (1895) having caught a brood of young, placed them on the ground in a marsh, first in one place and then in another, in order to watch them.

The male bird would run excitedly in and out of the tussocks, searching everywhere till he heard their feeble chirp. Then he would run toward them and settle down a yard or two off, quickening his note to a continuous giff-giff-giff. Then all the young had to tumble along laboriously (for they could hardly walk) till they reached the male bird who tucked them safely under his wings; once or twice the female bird appeared on the scene for a minute or two, when both would soar in the air like drumming snipe.

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 greater part of the food consists of insects and their larvae, but worms are also taken in some numbers and small mollusca, as well as spiders. Among insects the following classes may be mentioned: Beetles (Coleoptera), including many water beetles, Haliplus, Hydroporus, Dytiscus, Berosus, Dryops, Helichus, Phylobius (all recorded by Hesse), and Gyrinus, Hydroporus, Donacia, and Colymbetes (R. Gray). Of Diptera, Hesse records larva of Stratiomys (also recorded by Bar), and among Rhyncota, Plea minutissima (once by Hesse). Rey also met with Arachnida (spiders), and Jäckel records small fish.

Behavior.—Many observers have called attention to the habit of perching on trees. Seebohm (1884) mentions having shot specimens from the summit of high bare trees at least 65 feet from the ground, and similar observations have been made wherever it has been met with in forested regions. Beside the love song already described, this bird has an alarm note, which Davies renders as tchick-tchick, or giff-giff, and which is generally uttered from the top of a bush or post. A. Chapman phrases this note as chirkop, chirkop, chib, chib.

Fall.—From July to October it appears often singly, but also at times in flocks in Great Britain. As a rule these flocks are of no great size, but on July 26, 1867, Mr. Power met with large numbers at Rainham, Kent, and when one had been shot others rose on all sides, forming one large flock, which flew round and round, keeping up a continual whistle. He estimated the number at 80–100.

Winter.—During the winter months it haunts mud banks at the mouths of rivers or marshes and streams inland in small flocks, or sometimes in pairs, feeding on worms and small insects in southern Africa. Its habit of perching on trees and bushes has also been noted when wintering in northern Africa (Tunisia). On the whole, it may be described as a fresh-water haunting species, usually avoiding the neighborhood of the sea.

DISTRIBUTION

Breeding range.—Not on the Faeroes, as stated by Ridgway, but formerly in very small numbers in Great Britain, Holland, Jutland, Scandinavia, north Germany locally. Finland, the Baltic Republics, and Russia generally; also in Asia, east across Siberia to Kamtschatka and the Commander Isles, north to about 75° on the Yenisei and 71° on the Lena. Reports of breeding in south Europe (Spain, north Italy, Pyrenees, etc.) require confirmation.

Winter range.—Africa, south to Cape Province; Asia, southern Arabia, Iraq (chiefly on passage), India and Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and southeast China; the Malay Archipelago (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Timor, Philippines, etc.); and Australia.

Spring migration.—It leaves its winter quarters in South Africa in March, is common in the swamps of Morocco toward the end of April, fairly plentiful in Tunisia in April and also in numbers in Egypt, some remaining till May. Most have left Iraq by mid May, and the departure from India, Ceylon, and Burma also takes place in May. They pass Gibraltar from March 9 to early May; Corsica, April 12 to May 28; Cyprus, April–May (late date May 20); Corfu, April 19–May 6; while a few visit the south and east coast of Great Britain in April and May. On the lower Petchora they did not arrive till May 26.

Fall migration.—From Portugal it is recorded on August 18, Spain (early date, August 4), passes through Italy in some numbers from August to October, leaving Sweden in September and passing the eastern Pyrenees in September-October. It reaches Iraq in August, but rarely stays after October; arrives in India and Burma in August; and in South Africa in September-October, early dates, August, Transvaal (August 28) and Zambesi River.

Casual records.—Faeroes (H. C. Muller), Madeira (R. Gomez), Canaries (occasional D. A. Bannerman), Hawaiian Isles, and Sanak Island, Alaska (C. Littlejohn).

Egg dates.—In Holland, May 11 to 25 (9 dates); Jutland and Germany, May 7–25 (about 18 dates, mostly after May 20); south Sweden from mid May onward; Lapland, June 3–16 (16 dates), June 17–27 (11 dates), July 7 (one date).