SCOLOPACID^.] 



COMMON SANDPIPER. 



TOTANUS HYPOLEUCUS (Linn^us). 



EXPL.INATION OF PlATE. 



In collection 

 of H. IMassey, Esq. 



Figure 1. Lower Steeton, Yorkshire, May 19, 1889. 



2. Earclisland, Herefordshire, May 16, 1890. 



3. Ross-shire, June 6, 1888. 



4. Lower Steeton, Yorkshire, May 20, 1892. 



5. Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, May 20, 1892. 



6. Perthshire, May 24, 1891. 



7. Lapland, June 12, 1889. 



8. Aymestrey, Herefordshire, May 10, 1890. 



9. Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, May 20, 1892. j 



This species is a common summer visitor to the British Islands. 



Mr. Howard Saunders, describing the distribution of this Sandpiper in the 

 British Islands, Avrites * : — " This species, often called the Summer-Snipe, is a 

 regular visitor to the British Islands, usually appearing in April and leaving again 

 by the end of September, though a few bu'ds occasionally remain till November. 

 Inasmuch as its favourite haunts are the gravelly margins of lakes or of running 

 vpater, and islets of shingle with scanty herbage in trout streams, this Sandpiper 

 is chiefly seen on migration in the south-east of England ; but it breeds, sparingly, 

 along the moorland brooks of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and perhaps in 

 Dorset, Sussex, Kent and Buckinghamshire. In Wales, and in fact west of the 

 Severn and north of the Trent, it is well known ; while in Scotland it is to be 

 found on almost every loch and burn throughout the mainland, ranging to the 

 Outer Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands. It is generally distributed in Ireland." 



Mr. H. S. Davenport has kindly supplied me with the following extract 

 relating to the Common Sandpiper, from his forthcoming ' Original Sketches of 

 British Birds ' : — " I made the acquaintance of this pretty little bird for the first 

 time upwards of thirty years ago on the Teme, in Radnorshire. The ' Summer- 



'* ' Manual of British Birds,' p. 591 



