COMMON SANDPIPER. 449 



The Common Sandpiper makes a slight nest of moss 

 and dry leaves in a hole on a hank near fresh water, 

 generall}^ under shelter of a bunch of rushes or a tuft of 

 grass, and sometimes in a corn-field, if it happens to extend 

 near enough towards the water. Colonel Legge describes a 

 nest which he found in Wales, constructed of dead pieces of 

 the common rush, the bottom being of the exceptional thick- 

 ness of three inches. The eggs are four, reddish-white in 

 colour, spotted and speckled with umber-brown, measuring 

 1*45 by 1 in. " If disturbed during the period of incubation," 

 Mr. Selby observes, "the female quits the nest as quietly as 

 possible, and usually flies to a distance, making at this time 

 no outcry ; as soon, however, as the young are hatched, her 

 manners completely alter, and the greatest agitation is ex- 

 pressed on the apprehension of danger, and every stratagem 

 is tried, such as feigning lameness, and inability of flight, 

 to divert the attention of the intruder from the unfledged 

 brood." A writer in the vicinity of Clitheroe, in Lancashire, 

 says (Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. p. 148), " The Common Sand- 

 piper breeds with us ; and I this year started an old one 

 from her nest, at the root of a fir-tree. She screamed out, 

 and rolled about in such a manner, and seemed so completely 

 disabled, that, although perfectly aware that her intention 

 was to allure me from her nest, I could not resist my in- 

 clination to pursue her, and, in consequence, I had great 

 difficulty in finding the nest again. It was built of a few 

 dried leaves of the Weymouth pine, and contained three 

 young ones, just hatched, and an egg, through the shell of 

 which the bill of the young chick was just making its way ; 

 yet, young as they were, on my taking out the egg to examine 

 it, the little things, which could not have been out of their 

 shells more than an hour or two, set off out of the nest with 

 as much celerity as if they had been running about for a 

 fortnight. As I thought the old one would abandon the egg 

 if the young ones left the nest, I caught them again, and 

 covering them up with my hand for some time, they settled 

 down again. Next day all four had disappeared." The 

 adult Sandpiper can swim and dive well, however inapplicable 



VOL. III. 3 M 



