GREEN SANDPIPEE. o 



species as observed by him in Sweden, says * : — " Now of all our waders this is 

 the noisiest, and there is little trouble in finding the locality Avhere it breeds, for 

 the old male is always about some brook in the neighbourhood, and I have before 

 noticed that the loud wild cry of the Green Sandpiper and Greenshank are much 



alike In Sweden the Green Sandpiper never makes a nest on the ground, 



like the rest of its congeners, but invariably lays its four pyriform large eggs — of 

 a very light ground colour, spotted all over, sparingly towards the small end (at 

 the top the spots are much larger, darker, and crowded together), with two shades 

 of purple and umber brown — in an old deserted nest of a squirrel, jay, or crow (I 

 once, however, saw them in a new common thrush's nest), in the forest, often far 

 from water, always in a fir tree, sometimes forty feet from the ground. How the old 

 bird takes her young down to the ground I cannot say, but I once found four very 

 small young ones, apparently not a day old, at the foot of a fir, and in the nest I 

 found shells of the eggs still wet inside." 



The late Mr. E. T. Booth met with "^his Sandpiper in Yorkshire in the month of 

 June, under circumstances which pointed to the strong probability of its breeding 

 there. HeAvritesf: — '' The furthest north that I met with this Sandpiper was 

 in the valley of the Esk, a few miles inland from Whitby in Yorkshire ; parts of 

 the wild glen through which the river flows towards the North Sea were densely 

 wooded, and these proved to be favourite resorts of the birds. When alarmed 

 they frequently appeared to fly out from the upper branches of some of the larger 

 trees ; being, however, at that time unacquainted with the breeding-habits of this 

 species, I made no attempt to search for any nests in which their eggs or young 

 might be concealed. These observations were taken early in June 1862, the time 

 of year at which the birds might naturally be supposed to be engaged in breeding- 

 operations." 



Mr. H. Seebohm gives the following description of the eggs of this 

 species $ : — " Four is the full clutch of eggs, which vary in ground-colour from 

 creamy white to white with the faintest tinge of olive on the one hand, and to 

 very pale reddish brown on the other. The surface-spots are dark reddish brown, 

 generally most numerous on the large end of the egg, and seldom larger than 

 no. 4 shot ; the underlying markings are similar in size and distribution, but are 

 pale greyish brown in coloiu'. They vary in length from 1-6 to 1'5 inch, and in 



* ' Ten Tears in Sweden,' by " An Old Bushman," p. 373. 



t ' Rough Notes on Birds observed in the British Islands,' vol. ii. 



t ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 128. 



K 



