NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 247 



Breeding area : The Spotted Sandpiper is a regular 

 bird of passage, arriving in its more southerly breeding 

 quarters in April, but a little later in the extreme 

 northern limits of its distribution. As might naturally 

 be expected, the habits of this species very closely 

 resemble those of the Common Sandpiper, but American 

 ornithologists do not appear to know whether the bird 

 pairs for life, as its Palcearctic representative most cer- 

 tainly does. The favourite breeding places of the 

 Spotted Sandpiper are the banks of rivers and the 

 shores of lakes, either in wooded districts or on the 

 open prairies, where only the scattered " bluffs " relieve 

 the monotony of the otherwise treeless expanse. The 

 nest is made upon the ground, and- is merely a hollow 

 lined with a few bits of dry grass, pine needles, or small 

 dead leaves. Audubon states that in Labrador a much 

 more elaborate structure is made, consisting of moss, 

 grass, and feathers ! but with all my respect for the 

 great naturalist's observations, I cannot accept them 

 unsubstantiated by the experience of other observers. 

 The actions of this bird at the nest are similar to those 

 of the Old World species. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Spotted Sandpiper are four in number. 

 They vary in ground colour from creamy-white to rich 

 buff, the paler eggs, according to Mr. Raine, being from 

 the shores of alkaline lakes, and in a series very 

 apparent. They are spotted and more rarely blotched 

 with very dark reddish-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of pale gray. As a rule the spots are small 

 and circular, and the blotches are never very large. 

 Most of the markings are generally on the larger end of 

 the Gggi but varieties are common in which they are 

 pretty equally distributed over the whole surface. 

 Average measurement, 1*3 inch in length, by vo inch 



