EGGS OF BKITISH BIRDS. 137 



It is not known that the Spotted Sandpiper differs from its 

 European ally in its choice of a nesting-site; but Audubon 

 remarked that in the colder climate of Labrador it concealed 

 its nest under ledges of rocks, collected a considerable amount of 

 moss for the outer walls, and added a compact lining of slender 

 grasses and feathers of the Eider Duck. 



The eggs are four in number, pale buff in ground-colour, with 

 very dark reddish-brown spots and blotches, which vary in size 

 from that of a pea down to a speck. The underlying spots are 

 pale grey in colour, occasionally very large and conspicuous, but 

 generally small and obscure. The eggs vary in length from 135 

 to 12 inch, and in breadth from 10 to 09 inch. Compared with 

 eggs of the Common Sandpiper they are smaller, more boldly 

 spotted, and the spots are much darker. 



THE GEEEN SANDPIPEE. 



{Totamis ochropus.)* 



Plate 42, Figs. 5, 8. 



The Green Sandpiper is principally known in the British 

 Islands as a frequent visitor on spring and autumn migration. 

 The breeding-range of the Green Sandpiper reaches from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, in the west extending somewhat north of 

 the Arctic circle, but in the east scarcely reaching that latitude. 



So far as is known it is the only Sandpiper which does not lay 

 its eggs on the ground. The Green Sandpiper nests in a tree, 

 but it is not known that it ever builds a nest. Sometimes its 

 eggs are placed in the fork of a tree-trunk, on the leaves or 

 lichens and moss which may have accumulated there ; more 

 often the old nest of a Song Thrush or Mistle Thrush is chosen ; 

 and in Siberia I have taken the eggs from the old nest of a 

 Fieldfare in a willow tree, six feet from the ground. 



Four is the full clutch of eggs, which vary in ground-colour 

 from creamy-white to white, with the faintest tinge of olive on 

 the one hand and to very pale reddish-brown on the other. The 

 surface-spots are dark reddish-brown, generally most numerous on 

 the large end of the egg, and seldom larger than No. 4 shot ; the 



* Helodromas ochropiis, Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 289. 



