SANDPIPER, the name given to all of the smaller limicoline birds which are not plovers (q.v.), snipe (q.v.), or phalaropes (q.v.). The greenshank (q.v.) and the redshank (q.v.) are also related to the common sandpiper or summer-snipe (Tringa hypoleucus). This little bird is a summer visitor to northern Europe and Asia. In the British Isles it arrives in May. It fre quents clear streams, beside which it nests, on the ground. There are four eggs, protectively coloured, as is also the case with the young. It winters in India, Australia, and the Cape. In America it is replaced by Actitis macularius, the peetweet or spotted sand piper having similar habits. The green sandpiper (T. ochropus) is unique among the group, except for the North American soli tary sandpiper (Calidris solitaries), in using the old nests of other birds wherein to lay her eggs. Another European species is the wood sandpiper (T. glareola), like the last, very dark in colour.
Other forms include the knot (q.v.), the dunlin (q.v.), the sanderling (Calidris arenaria), which lacks the hind toe, the purple sandpiper (C. striata) and the little, Temminck's, and American stints (T. minuta, T. temmincki and Pisobia minutilkz). The American stint, often called the least sandpiper, is darker and ranges from the Arctic to Brazil. Bonaparte's sandpiper (P. fuscicollis) distinguished by its white tail-coverts, is a common American form. It is called the white-rumped sandpiper.
The semipalmated sandpiper (Ereunetes pusillus) has partially webbed feet ; it is a small form, breeding in arctic America. The buff-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis) is common in the Mississippi valley in autumn and breeds in Alaska and Kee watin, wintering in Argentine and Uruguay.