216 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



dictionary to prove a key to the literature of continental 

 Europe as that a perfect knowledge of the habits of our 

 feathered migrants should be acquired only by local 

 observations. Hitherto, as far as Norfolk is concerned, 

 this problem remains unsolved. The mere fact that 

 individuals have been procured in the county, in every 

 month of the year, is no more conclusive as to its 

 breeding with us than is the case with the golden 

 or grey plover, the knot, sanderling, or other similar 

 migrants ; but as regards this particular species there 

 is one very exceptional and important considera- 

 tion, namely, that of late years the researches of 

 European ornithologists have established a strange 

 peculiarity in its breeding habits ; indeed, to borrow a 

 common American expression, naturalists and green- 

 sandpipers, in this respect, have been hitherto alike " up 

 a tree." It matters not how much our preconceived 

 notions of the proper locality for the nest of a wader 

 may be upset by an inspection of Mr. Gould's plate 

 in his " Birds of Great Britain," the fact is indisputable 

 that the green sandpiper deposits its eggs, many feet 

 from the ground, in the deserted nests of the song 

 thrush and other arboreal species. If such, then, is 

 its ordinary habit in other countries, may not our 

 ignorance of this singular custom account for its eggs 

 never having been taken in England, although very 

 young birds are recorded to have been seen ? 



This very remarkable peculiarity seems first to have 

 been brought to the notice of Enghsh ornithologists in 

 a review which appeared in the " Ibis" for 1859 (p. 405), 

 but even then judgment was suspended by the wi-iter, 

 who considered that the assertion required further 

 testimony. This was forthcoming a few years later, 

 but space will not admit of my quoting more than 

 a few extracts from a paper on this subject, by Mr. 

 Alfred Newton, in the " Proceedings " of the Zoological 



