50 THE LIMICOLE OF THE CLYDE AREA. 
autumn is a difficult bird to identify. On the ground it 
has the appearance and habit of a redshank, though when seen 
in flight it lacks the conspicuous white back and secondaries 
of that bird. Then it is a silent bird. I have never heard a 
ruff utter a note. When ruffs and reeves are together the 
difficulty is increased. The difference in size between the 
sexes is so great that to the uninitiated the ruff and the reeve 
seem to be two species instead of the same. Most of the birds 
obtained in the area have been shot from amongst flocks of other 
species, especially golden plover, and it was only when the 
unknown bird was seen in the bag that inquiry as to its 
identity was made. 
*Common Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucus (L.) )—This species 
is a common summer migrant, arriving from the first week of 
April onwards. It frequents all kinds of streams and sheets 
of water, but it has a preference for those with gravelly and 
sandy banks or margins. By the first week of May the early 
birds begin to nest. The site chosen is usually on some 
sloping bank; it may be at the water’s edge, or it may be 300 
yards away from the water. A hollow scratched in the ground 
lined with a few pieces of dry grass, dead leaves, or withered 
herbage receives the four handsome pear-shaped eggs. The 
young are delightful little creatures and run soon after 
they are hatched. Before they are able to fly they squat to 
escape observation as a rule, but if close to water they 
will take to it readily and dive, coming up some yards away, 
and remaining motionless by the water’s edge or hiding under 
overhanging herbage. By the end of July the common sand- 
piper begins to gather in small flocks of ten to twenty birds. 
The greatest number I have seen in a flock was twenty-four at 
Balgray Dam. This habit of collecting in small flocks 
is not mentioned in books on birds, but it is quite character- 
istic of the bird in late summer. They are then very rest- 
less, flying to and fro over the water, calling all the 
time. From the beginning of August the numbers grow 
less, till by October all have departed. A common sand- 
piper after September is a great rarity in our area. 
Wood-Sandpiper (7. Glareola (J. F. Gmelin))—A rare 
autumn visitor. One was obtained near Port Glasgow in 
1850, one near Campbeltown in 1856, one on-Loch Lomond in 
1872, and another there in 1878. 
