2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



" The remarkable deviation of the Green Sandpiper from the nesting-habits 

 of other waders was first brought before the notice of the majority of British 

 readers by Prof. Newton (P. Z. S. 1863, pp. 529-532) ; but an intimation of its 

 preference for trees had been given in 'Naumannia' for 1851-52, and Forester 

 Hintz had communicated full details (J. f. O. 1802, p. 460) respecting its 

 nidification as observed in Pomerania from 1818." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser has published an excellent account of the nidification 



of the Green Sandpiper as observed by Forester W. Hintz in Pomerania. 



Mr. Dresser writes * : — " The Rev. Herbert S. Hawkins has placed at my disposal 



a letter from Mr. Hintz respecting the nidification of the present species, from 



which I translate the following :—' The bird arrives here in pairs from the 



beginning to the middle of April, and selects for the purpose of nidification 



wooded localities close to ponds, from which it makes excursions to marshy lakes 



or rivers at some distance. It usually deposits its eggs in old deserted nests of 



the Blackbird and Missel-Thrush ; but I have on one occasion taken eggs out of a 



nest of the latter species which had beej left by the young Thrushes only six 



days previously. It also not unfrequently uses the same nest two years in 



succession. I have found its eggs in old half-ruined nests of Woodpigeons, Jays, 



and even in those of the squirrel, on the ground, on the moss, on old stumps with 



only a few leaves under the eggs, and on one occasion on the branches of an old 



pine tree in a place where the spines were heaped together, and once even in the 



hollow of an aspen tree where a Starling had previously bred, the tree having 



fallen and the opening of the hole being upwards. Formerly I used always to 



look for the nests of the Green Sandpiper low down, and usually found them from 



3 to 12 feet above the ground; but of late years I have taken eggs as high up 



as 35 feet. The bird always nests close to ponds where even in summer there is 



some little water ; and only on two occasions have I found the nest as far distant 



from the water as 20 to 30 paces. As soon as the young are hatched they jump 



down to the ground. The present species breeds early, often in the middle of 



April, usually in May, or, if the eggs are taken, in June, the second lot of eggs 



being occasionally, though not often, deposited in the same nest.' Borggreve 



states that Mr. Hintz once found seven eggs of this species in an old Thrush's 



nest at Neustadt Eberswald ; and he surmises that two females must have laid in 



the same nest, which I think most probable." 



The late Mr. H. W. Wheelwright, describing the nesting habits of this 



* ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. p. 141. 



