230 COMMON SANDPIPER. 



Genus— TRINGOIDES. 

 TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS— Common Sandpiper. 



[ Tota?iiiS hypoleucus — Yarrell^ 



Where the mossy riv'let strays 

 Far from human haunts and ways. 



Burns. 



The Summer Snipe, or Sand Lark as this bird is also called, 

 is common on all the principal streams of the county. The 

 whistling cry, " wheet ! wheet ! wheet ! " is a very familiar sound to 

 the fisherman, or to the wanderer on the river's bank, as the birds 

 rise on his approach, to fly forwards to the next sand-bank on the 

 opposite side of the river. They arrive early in April, remain a few 

 weeks, then disappear, to come back for a longer stay in the autumn. 



" The nidification of the Sandpiper," says Mr. W. C. Blake, 

 •' was formerly a mystery to me. Though the birds were common 

 in the spring, I could obtain no instance of their nests or eggs 

 being met with. Attention to the subject during the last few years 

 has cleared the matter up. I noted the first appearance of the birds 

 was during the first or second week of April ; they remained until 

 the end of May. — without nesting — and then disappeared until the 

 middle of July, when they returned, bringing their fledged young 

 ones with them. After careering about the shallow margins of the 

 Wye, in small companies, until the end of September or beginning 

 of October, they finally di?appeared until the succeeding spring. I 

 once heard the note of the Sandpiper on the 4th of June, and on 

 the 27th of June, 1886, three Sandpipers were observed near Ross, 

 but these latter may have been returned birds. 



" The question arose — where did the Sandpiper go to breed, 

 and why ? I suspected they retired to the upper reaches of the 

 river Wye and its tributary streams to secure greater retirement, 

 and my impressions have been borne out by facts. Instances have 

 come to my knowledge of Sandpipers breeding on the Lugg ; and 

 during the present season (June, 1887), a friend gave me an egg 

 taken from the Wye bank, near Hay. 



