Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/280

Rh 260 8 A N rocks of basaltic character are common ; veins of steatite and white fibrous quartz are also found in the district. Only 135 square miles of the total area are cultivable, and of thcso but 75 are cultivated. The chief crops are rice, scsamuin, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, dhani palms, and yams. The revenue in 1883-84 was 18,9/8, the land tax realizing 6749 of that amount. This mountainous and forest-clad country, with such a small cultivable area, is sparsely inhabited, the population as returned by the census of 1881 being only 64,010 (males 32,706, females 31,304); of this number 56,468 were Buddhists. There are no towns with a popula- tion exceeding 2000. Sandoway, the chief town and headquarters, on the river of the same name, in 18 27' 35" N. lat. and 94* 24' 36" E. long., is a very ancient town, and is said to have been at one time the capital of a kingdom, or more probably of a potty chieftainship. SANDPIPER (Germ. Sandpfeifer), according to Willughby in 1676 the name given by Yorkshiremen to the bird now most popularly known in England as the " Summer-Snipe," the Tringa hypoleucos of Linnaeus and the Totanus, Actitis, or Tringotdes kypoleucus of later writers, but probably even in Willughby's time of much wider signification, as for more than a century it has certainly been applied to nearly all the smaller kinds of the group termed by modern ornithologists Limtcolee which are not PLOVERS (vol. xix. p. 227), or SNIPES (q.v.), but may be said to be intermediate between them. Placed by most systematists in the family Scolopacidse, the birds commonly called Sandpipers seem to form three sections, which have been often regarded as Subfamilies Totanitue, Tringinw, and Phalaropodinx, the last indeed in some classifications taking the higher rank of a Family Phalaropodidx. This section comprehends three species only, known as Phalaropes or swimming Sandpipers, which are at once distinguished by the membranes that fringe their toes, in two of the species forming marginal lobes, 1 and by the character of their lower plumage, which is as close as that of a Duck, and is obviously connected with their natatory habits. The distinctions between Totaninss and Tringinte, though believed to be real, are not so easily drawn, and space is wanting here to describe them minutely. The most obvious may be said to lie in the acute or blunt form of the tip of the bill (with which is associated a less or greater development of the sensitive nerves running almost if not quite to its extremity, and therefore greatly influencing the mode of feeding) and in the style of plumage the Tringinx, with blunt and flexible bills, mostly assuming a summer-dress in which some tint of chestnut or reddish-brown is very prevalent, while the Totaninte, with acute and stiffer bills, display no such lively colours. Furthermore, the Tringinte, except when actually breeding, frequent the sea-shore much more than do the Totaninie. 2 To the latter belong the GREEN- SHANK (vol. xi. p. 173) and REDSHANK (vol. xx. p. 317), as well as the Common Sandpiper of English books, the " Summer-Snipe " above-mentioned, a bird hardly exceed- ing a Skylark in size, and of very general distribution throughout the British Islands, but chiefly frequenting clear streams, especially those with a gravelly or rocky bottom, and most generally breeding on the beds of sand or shingle on their banks. It usually makes its appearance in May, and from thence during the summer-months may be seen in pairs skimming gracefully over the water from one bend of the stream to another, uttering occasionally a 1 These are PhcUaropua fulicaritu and P. (or Lobipes) hypcrboreus, and on that account were thought by some of the older writers to be allied to the COOTS (vol. vi. p. 841). The third species is P. (or Steganopui) vnlsoni. All are natives of the higher parts of the northern hemisphere, and the lost is especially American, though perhaps a straggler to Europe. 3 There are unfortunately no English words adequate to express these two sections. By some British writers the Tringinie have 1 m indicated as "Stints," a term cognate with Stunt and wholly inapplic- able to many of them, while recent American writers restrict to them the name of "Sandpiper," and call the Totaninw, to which that nruno is especially appropriate, " Willets." -SAN shrill but plaintive whistle, or running nimbly along the margin, the mouse-coloured plumage of its back and wings making indeed but little show, though the pure white of its lower parts often renders it conspicuous. The nest, ia which four eggs are laid with their pointed ends meeting in its centre (as is usual among Limicolino birds), is seldom far from the water's edge, and the eggs, as well as the newly-hatched and down-covered young, so closely resemble the surrounding pebbles that it takes a sharp eye to discriminate them. Later in the season family-parties may be seen about the larger waters, whence, as autumn advances, they depart for their winter-quarters. The Common Sandpiper is found over the greater part of the Old World. In summer it is the most abundant bird of its kind in the extreme north of Europe, and it extends across Asia to Japan. In winter it makes its way to India, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. In America its place is taken by a closely kindred species, which is said to have also occurred in England T. macularius, the " Peetweet," or Spotted Sandpiper, so called from its usual cry, or from the almost circular marks which spot its lower plumage. In habits it is very similar to its congener of the Old World, and in winter it migrates to the Antilles and to Central and South America. Of other Totaninse, one of the most remarkable is that to which the inappro- priate name of Green Sandpiper has been assigned, the Totanus or Helodromas ochropus of ornithologists, which most curiously differs (so far as is known) from all others, of the group both in its osteology 3 and mode of nidifica- tion, the hen laying her eggs in the deserted nests of other birds, Jays, Thrushes, or Pigeons, but nearly always at some height (from 3 to 30 feet) from the ground (Proc. Zool. Society, 1863, pp. 529-532). This species occurs in England the whole year round, and is pre- sumed to Lave bred Lere, though the fact lias never been satisfactorily proved, and our knowledge of its erratic Labits comes from naturalists in Pomerania and Sweden ; yet in the breeding-season, even in England, the cock-bird Las been seen to rise Ligh in air and perform a variety of evolutions on tLe wing, all the wLile piping wLat, without any violence of language, may be called a song. This Sandpiper is characterized by its dark upper plumage, wLicL contrasts strongly witL the wLite of the lower part of tLe back and gives tLe bird as it flies away from its dis- turber mucL tLe look of a very large House-Martin. The so-called Wood-Sandpiper, T. glareola, wLicL, tLougli much less common, is known to Lave bred in England, Las a considerable resemblance to the species last mentioned, but can at once be distinguisLed, and often as it nies, by tLe featLers of tLe axillary plume being wLite barred with greyisL-black, wLile in tLe Green Sandpiper tLey are greyisL-black barred witL wLite. It is an abundant Mnl in most parts of nortLern Europe, migrating in winter very far to tLe soutLward. Of tLe section Tringinx tLe best known are tLe KNOT (vol. xiv. p. 129) and tLe Dunlin, T. alpina. TLe latter, often also called Ox-bird, Plover's-Page, Purre, and Stint, names wLicL it sLares witL some otLer species, not only breeds commonly on many of tLe elevated moors of Britain, but in autumn resorts in countless flocks to tLe sLores, wLere indeed a few may be seen at almost any time of year. In seasonal diversity of plumage it is scarcely excelled by any bird of its kind, being in winter of a nearly uniform asL- grey above and wLite beneatL, wLile in summer tLe featLers of tLe back are black, witL deep rust-coloured edges, and a broad black belt occupies tLe breast. TLe 3 It possesses only a single pair of posterior "cmnrginations" on its sternum, in this respect resembling the RUFF (supra, p. 54). Among the PLOVERS (vol. xix. p. 227) and SNIPES (q.v.) other similarly ex- ceptional cases may be found.