450 SCOLOPACID^. 



to such a purpose the feet of this little bird may appear to 

 be ; and Mr. Selby meutious that the young, too, when three 

 weeks or a month old, just before they are able to fly, if 

 discovered and attempted to be caught, boldly take to the 

 water, diving repeatedly, and to a considerable distance. 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, the authors of the ' Cata- 

 logue of the Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,' say, " Some years 

 since we saw a Sandpiper flying across a river attacked by a 

 Hawk, when it instantly dived, and remained under water 

 until its enemy disappeared. It then emerged and joined 

 its companions. This bird, when flushed, sometimes utters 

 a note resembling, as near as possible, that of the Kingfisher." 

 Montagu says, " Having shot at and winged one of this 

 species, as it was flying across a piece of water, it fell, and 

 floated towards the verge, and as we reached to take it up, 

 the bird instantly dived, and we never saw it rise again to 

 the surface." 



The beak of the Common Sandpiper is dark brown towards 

 the point, pale yellow-brown at the base ; the irides dusky- 

 brown ; from the beak to the eye a brown streak, over that, 

 over the eye, and over the dark-coloured ear-coverts, a light- 

 coloured streak; the top of the head, back of the neck, the 

 whole of the wing-coverts, the back, upper tail-coverts, and 

 the four central tail-feathers, greenish-brown, with a dusky 

 greenish-black stripe across the centre, and along the line of 

 the shaft of each feather ; wing-primaries almost black, with 

 a greyish-white patch on the inner web of all but the first ; 

 the secondaries tij^ped with white ; the tail graduated, the 

 central feathers being the longest, and all twelve barred with 

 greenish-black ; the four outer tail-feathers on each side 

 tipped with white ; the two outer tail-feathers on each side 

 with the outer webs white, barred with greenish-black ; the 

 chin white ; the sides of the neck and the upper part of the 

 breast streaked with dusky-black, on a ground-colour of pale 

 ash ; the lower part of the breast and all the other parts of 

 the under surface of the body of a delicate and uniformly 

 unspotted white (hence the systematic specific name of the 

 l)ird) ; the legs and toes ash-green ; the claws brown. 



