AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 83 



male birds with their ruffs in full beauty, very tame, 

 but continually " squaring up " to one another with 

 heads lowered, and expanded ruffs, without ever 

 coming to an actual encounter, they also made hostile 

 demonstrations to many other birds that sliared their 

 captivity, but I never saw anything like a genuine 

 fight. The natural food of the Ruff consists princi- 

 pally of earthworms, slugs, and small snails, but in 

 captivity they "train off" very readily upon soaked 

 grain, bread, and finely chopped meat, either raw or 

 boiled. 



154. COMMON SANDPIPER. 



Trliiga hypoleacus. 



This bird, though well known in Northamptonshire 

 by the name of Summer Snipe, is by no means 

 abundant in that part of the county with which I 

 am most intimately acquainted, in fact in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Lilford a feAv only put 

 in an appearance in April about the banks of our 

 river and remain for a very few days ; on the return 

 passage we are generally visited by three or four of 

 these pretty little birds in July and August, they 

 then haunt the most gravelly spots that they can 

 find on the river and the tributary brooks, and occa- 

 sionally remain with us for a week or two. I liave 

 not so far been able to discover any record of the 

 finding of a Sandj)iper's nest in our county, though 

 Mr. II. F. Tomalin, writing in the 4th vol. of our 

 'Natural History Journal,' p. 9, states that he observed 

 a brood of this species during the summer of 1885, 

 and adds, " They breed here " ; this statement refers, 



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