220 BIKDS OP NOEPOLK. 



their efforts to discover the nest of the green sandpiper, 

 I will now give, from our local authorities, a few of the 

 instances in which this species has been supposed to 

 have remained with us for breeding purposes. Chief 

 amongst these is the well known communication 

 from Mr. Lubbock to Yarrell, also recorded in the 

 '* Fauna of Norfolk " that he had been informed by Sir 

 Thomas Beevor "that one of these sandpipers built in 

 a hollow on the side of a clay pit upon his estate, in 

 the autumn of 1839, and hatched four young, which, 

 to his vexation, were taken by a shepherd's boy. TLey 

 are common during summer and autumn upon a small 

 stream which runs through his property near Attle- 

 borough." At that time, of course, the clay-pit was 

 looked upon as a not unlikely locality for the nest of 



tkrougli whicli ran a clear trout stream, at Cocking, near Mid- 

 hurst," invariably betook themselves "into the great woods in the 

 immediate neighbourhood" when disturbed at the pond, and sus- 

 pecting that they might after all be examples of the wood sand- 

 piper (Totanus glareola), one was shot in the following July, but 

 proved to be T. ochropus. The probability, also, of this sandpiper 

 occasionally breeding in North Lincolnshire has been recently 

 mooted by Mr. Cordeaux, of Great Cotes, Ulceby, in the " Zoolo- 

 gist" (s. s., p. 1412 and 1459). In his own and the adjoining 

 parish of Aylesby, a pair or two have been observed during the 

 last three summers, and a farmer, whose land adjoins the small 

 stream which they frequent, at the latter place, assures Mr. 

 Cordeaux that towards the end of July, 1868, he observed "four 

 young birds along with the old ones sitting on a sand-bank in 

 the ' beck.' " They were " quite little things," and could " only 

 fly a few yards at once" ; they were quite a different colour to the 

 old birds — "much lighter." They were all seen for some weeks 

 after, about the same spot, and one of the young birds was shot 

 and sent by his informant to Mr. Cordeaux, who unfortunately 

 was from home at the time, and was therefore unable, as the bird 

 was not preserved, to confirm his evidence, but he is himself 

 perfectly satisfied with his authority. The young bird was said 

 to be " about as large as a jack snipe." 



