TI2 Notes on the Bivds which Inhabit Scotton Common. 
wing and tail feathers upon the air, during the slanting down- 
ward flight, and as it is very rarely heard except in the breeding 
season, it is probably of the nature of a signal either to mate or 
young. 
Redshanks come to the Common to breed in the middle 
of March, anda pair or two nest by the gull-ponds, where I have 
found eggs in May, laid in the middle of a tuft of grass on a little 
mound rising from a shallow pool. ‘Their shrill cry however is 
heard more frequently on the marshy land to the west of the 
Common, towards the River Trent, where the keeper often comes 
across their eggs in spring while he is engaged in “ plovering.” 
Parts of these lands are now undergoing the process of ‘‘ Warping,” 
so perhaps in the near future many Plovers, Snipe and Redshanks 
will be driven to breed on the higher ground of the Common, 
The Wood Pigeon often builds its scanty nest in one of 
the small birch trees on the heath, and quite a number of Stoek 
Doves breed on the drier parts of the Common. These latter 
birds lay their two eggs in a rabbit hole or a scrape in the sand 
among the roots of the heather, the nest, made roughly of twigs 
and dry grass being sometimes three or four feet from the entrance. 
The sitting bird reveals the nesting hole by dashing out with a 
great clatter almost under the feet of the intruder. ‘This species 
must rear two or three broods in a season, as I have found them 
sitting in the middle of April and also early in September. 
Towards the end of July, when clusters of yellow stars of the 
Bog Asphodel gleam in the swampy places and the purple heads of 
the Plume Thistle (C. Pratensis), nod in the breeze, and the first 
Marsh Gentian is opening its bright blue corolla to the early 
Autumn sun, a handsome little stranger, the Green Sand- 
piper, invariably puts in an appearance, and frequents the 
muddy margins of the gull-ponds. These little birds as they dart 
away with shrill alarm notes, showing their conspicuous white- 
upper tail-coverts during flight, always fill me with interest. No 
absolute proof exists that the species has bred in Britain, so the 
two or three seen yearly on the Common are probably hatched 
somewhere in the land of the mid-night sun, and are spending a 
week or so by the ponds on their way to a warmer winter home, 
Naturalists tell us that they lay their eggs in old nests of Thrushes, 
