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 English ornithologists in 
a review which appeared in the “ Ibis” for 1859 (p. 405), 
but even then judgment was suspended by the writer, 
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 
