458 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



the 23rd of July be told me that he had seen six together, 

 and on the 26th of the same month I found them near the 

 place he had mentioned. By creeping on my hands and 

 knees I obtained a good view of them as they walked about 

 on a mud bank, and believe from the duller look of the 

 plumage of some, that they were two old birds with a brood 

 of young ones. They appear to separate soon after their 

 arrival, or to unite for a day or two as fancy leads them." 



It has naturally been supposed that this Sandpiper breeds 

 occasionally in the British Islands, and since the fact has 

 been placed beyond question that this species habitually 

 deposits its eggs in old nests in trees, many points in the 

 habits of the birds observed in summer have a peculiar signi- 

 ficance. Thus, so long ago as June, 1843, Mr. Knox ob- 

 served, as recorded in his delightful ' Ornithological Rambles 

 in Sussex ' (p. 227), that four birds, one of which was after- 

 wards shot for identification, when disturbed from the borders 

 of a pond through which ran a clear trout stream at Cocking, 

 near Midhurst, always retired to the great woods in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood. There are many similar records 

 from various parts of England, and in a footnote in Mr. 

 Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk,' ii. p. 226, Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 jun., communicates the following: — "Mr. Alfred Roberts, 

 of the Museum at Scarborough, has had the Green Sand- 

 piper {T. ocltroj^ns) several times from the neighbourhood of 

 Hunmanby, in all cases shot in June, The keeper there 

 says they breed in old crows' nests ; he has seen them come 

 off from the nests." This statement is explicit, and only 

 requires confirmation ; nevertheless, Mr. W. E. Clarke says 

 (Hbk. Yorks. Vertebs. p. 77), that there is no reliable 

 evidence of its having bred in Yorkshire ; and the same 

 must at present be said of the rest of England. To that 

 country and to Wales the Green Sandpiper is a periodical 

 visitant of general distribution on the banks of rivers and 

 inland waters, although never numerous ; and it occurs with 

 tolerable frequency in the eastern counties of Scotland up to 

 Aberdeenshire, although very rare in the west, and unknown 

 in the island dependencies. In Ireland a few are obtained 



