In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 227 



birds last summer in company with the Curlew, on the sand flats at 

 the mouth of the Blackwater, near Youghal, in Ireland. 



Totanus Ochropus. " Green Sandpiper." A bird always to be 

 found in the water-meadows ronnd Salisbury. When I say always, 

 I think I can say I have seen them in every month here except 

 June. There would seem to be a mystery in some folks' minds 

 concerning the locality of their breeding-places. I have heard it 

 confidently asserted that they make use of old crows' nests and other 

 similar places for the purposes of nidification, which would seem 

 highly improbable, from the habits and structure of the bird, it 

 seeming far more probable that it hides its nest so cleverly amongst 

 the herbage and thick grass of the places it inhabits that it is but 

 rarely found. It would seem, anyhow, to travel northwards for 

 breeding. I have often shot it, and seen it shot, in our Britford 

 meadows, where there are very favourable opportunities for stalking^ 

 it, owing to the high banks of the " carriages " that intersect them 

 in every direction. It is a solitary bird, and you rarely flush more 

 than one or two at a time, though I have seen four or five on the 

 wing together occasionally. It requires very accurate marking down,, 

 for it generally flies very low under the cover of the bank ere 

 alighting ; and unless you mark the exact spot it pursues the same 

 tactics on rising, and then, when it is out of shot, it rises suddenly 

 into the air with a zig-zag flight, uttering its shrill clear cry, and 

 continues circling round for some time until, having selected its spot 

 to alight on, it darts down precipitately, with closed wings like a 

 ball, breaking its fall by a few sharp turns to the right and left ere 

 it actually pitches. Its plumage is very pretty, the snowy white of 

 its tail coverts marking it at once from any other bird of its species, 

 as it stands out in strong contrast from the dark olive green, which 

 is the general tint of its upper feathering. It is sometimes called 

 here the Summer Snipe, as well as its first cousin, the common little 

 Brown Sandpiper. 



Totanus Glareola. " Wood Sandpiper." Rare amongst us, but a 

 bird which is liable at times to be mistaken for the former 

 species. There is one difference, however, which will at once enable 

 anyone to distinguish between the two birds (as detailed to me by 



