SCOLOPACIDE. 425 
were afterwards seen, but could not be procured.” 
This specimen is now considered to be Temminck’s 
Stint and not the more common Little Stint,* or 
“Little Sandpiper” of Montagu, which bird, al- 
though generally more common, has not I believe 
been found in Somersetshire, nor can I find any 
other notice of the occurrence of the present species 
in the county: we must therefore consider it here 
as only a very accidental visitor, although perhaps 
it may occasionally have occurred and escaped 
notice. In England generally its visits are only 
accidental, mostly happening in the spring and 
autumn. In its habits it seems somewhat to 
resemble the Common Sandpiper or Summer 
Snipe, frequenting the banks of fresh-water streams 
and pools rather than the sea-shore. 
Yarrell, quoting Mr. Wolley, says these birds 
breed north of the Bothnian Gulf. The nest is said 
to be very simple—a few short bits of hay in a little 
saucer-shaped hollow placed amongst thin grass or 
sedge, generally not far from the water’s edge, but 
sometimes in the middle of a meadow. Its food 
appears to be gnats and other insects, which it picks 
off the grass, and also worms. 
This is the smallest of the British Sandpipers, 
being smaller even than the Little Stint. Yarrell 
* Montagu’s Dictionary, by Newman—* Sandpiper, 
Little,” ‘Sandpiper, Temminck’s.” 
2038 
