Islands and the adjacent mainland on the double passage.
I noticed it in the neighbourhood of Tunis in November,
and have seen it in Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus ; in this
last-named island I am convinced that it was breeding
near Limasol in May 1875, but we could not discover a
nest in spite of protracted search and some watching of
a pair that were much distressed by our proximity, and
kept hovering and whistling about the spot whence we
first disturbed them.
The Wood-Sandpiper breeds in many parts of Europe,
notably in the Netherlands and in Denmark ; the nest
is generally situated in rough moorland, and is always
well concealed and difficult to find. The habits of this
bird to some extent resemble those of the Green Sandpiper,
but it is much less wary than that erratic species,
and, so far as my experience goes, is more addicted to
perching on bushes and low trees than any of its congeners.
The ordinary cry of the Wood-Sandpiper is a
double whistle; but the pair to which I have alluded
above as observed in Cyprus flew about constantly
uttering a prolonged twitter or trilling note that I never
heard on any other occasion. I gather from other
writers that this species ranges virtually over the whole
of the Old World, from Scandinavia and Northern
Siberia to Ceylon and South Africa, and from the coast
of Portugal to Japan.