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waders of the Stint and Sandpiper families. Thus it is almost 
always the male which sits, and leads the young brood, in Tvinga 
striata (the Purple Sandpiper, Norwegian ‘“ Fjzrepist ” = ‘‘ Ebb- 
piper”) and T. temmincht, as well as in the Greenshank (Totanus 
canescens), the Wood Sandpiper (T. glareola),* and others; and if 
both parents are present, the male is always the bolder, the 
female more cautious, and also in better condition, than her 
mate. 
In company with Phalavopus there commonly live a few pairs 
of Temminck’s Stint (Tvinga temmincki). This northern species, 
hardly larger than a sparrow, is numerous in heather-covered 
localities in the arctic parts of Norway, and here generally nests 
in small colonies on low-lying tracts overgrown with willows 
and Empetrum, not far from the shore, sometimes even in the 
middle of the small plots of meadow by the Laplanders’ huts, if 
only there are small pools of water in the neighbourhood where 
they can search for food. At these regular feeding-places they 
put in an appearance several times a day during the nesting 
season to look for food. 
During the whole time of laying, the male of this little sand- 
piper performs a peculiar play, consisting of flying exercises, 
combined with song, all to amuse his mate during the first 
period of their wedded life. With quivering wings he mounts, 
almost like a lark, singing and twittering, up in the air. Here 
he flies about, in a circle, at an inconsiderable height, during a 
trilling passage of the song, and sinks at last with raised wings, 
still singing, down upon a stone or on the top of a bush. The 
common Dunlin (Tvinga alpina) also has a similar but far less 
elaborate play, and it is also known in the Knot (Tviga canutus). 
There still remains to be mentioned, among the island’s 
small waders, the smallest of them all, Tvinga minuta. This 
Little Stint of the far north, it is true, appears during the 
migration periods, sometimes even in large numbers, alike in the 
south of Norway and on the other coasts of Western Europe, 
but about its summer haunts, and its breeding history, there 
* The Norwegian name of this species is Gronbenet Sneppe—Green- 
legged Sandpiper, while that of the Greenshank is Glutsneppe=a corruption of 
Glottis-Sandpiper.— 7rans/. 
