Volume 34, Plate XV / Ornithology (Birds)

Common & Spotted Totanus

Totanus hypoleucus & macularius

• The Common Totanus. A common and lively summer visitant frequenting the banks of every stream, river, and Scotch lake, the Common Totanus runs along the water picking up insects, jerking its body and whistling as it flits. The adult is hair-brown above with a glossy greenish lustre and dark feather shafts, white below with hair-brown spotting on the throat and breast, and it nests on a dry bank a short way from the water.
• The Spotted Totanus. Long thought only a straggler in Britain, the Spotted Totanus has at least one specimen reliably killed, shot in Norfolk among Common Sandpipers, its proper home being North America. Slightly smaller than the Common Totanus with a shorter, stronger, more yellowish bill, it is hair-brown above with darker streaks and bands, and entirely pure white beneath with a round dark spot near each feather tip, whence its name.