88 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



upper portion of the tail-feathers of this bird are, 

 when the wings are spread in flight, so conspicuous 

 as to strike anyone who keeps his eyes open. 

 This Sandpiper, instead of usually nesting upon the 

 ground, as is the common habit of birds of this 

 family, generally selects an old nest of some other 

 species, sometimes at a considerable height in a 

 tree ; it appears from the account given in the 4th 

 edition of Yarrell that this singular habit in a 

 Totanus was not recorded till 1851 ; to quote the 

 particulars given loc. supr. cit., it seems that in 

 Pomerania "the eggs have been found in old nests 

 of the Song-Thrush, Jay, Blackbird, Missel Thrush, 

 Wood Pigeon, once in that of the Red-backed 

 Shrike ; often in squirrels' dreys ; sometimes on the 

 ground ; on the moss on old stumps ; in broken- 

 down trees where other birds have previously nested ; 

 on branches of an old pine-tree where the pines were 

 heaped together ; at elevations varying from 3 to 35 

 feet ; but always in proximity to ponds." The eggs 

 are four in number, but it is supposed that two 

 females occasionally lay in the same nest, as seven 

 eggs are said to have been found in one. There is 

 no positive proof of this Sandpiper having bred in 

 Great Britain, but very strong evidence in favour 

 of its doing so will be found adduced in the article 

 in Yarrell from which I have so freely borrowed 

 above, and I am quite convinced that it formerly 

 bred in the neighbourhood of Lilford, and that the 

 reason that the eggs were not discovered was, that 

 neither I nor anyone else about the place had, at the 

 period to which I refer, any idea of looking for them 

 in trees, or, indeed, elsewhere than on the ground ; 

 be the fact as it may, two Green Sandpipers througli- 

 out the month of April constantly frequented the 



