2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



Snipe ' of the local country folk was subsequently discovered to be common on the 

 Lugg and Arrow in Herefordshire, and it is certainly one of the most familiar 

 objects to be encountered by anyone who is assiduous in flogging the lovely trout- 

 streams which intersect the upland glens and pastoral valleys of Merionethshire. 

 I think I have found the Common Sandpiper most numerous on the river Lliw, 

 I have known of three or four pairs breeding at the same time within hail of my 

 summer quarters at Llanuwchllyn, while other pairs have asserted their presence 

 on different stretches of the stream until its source is well nigh reached in the 

 mountain passes. The species is likewise abundant on the Hirnant, Llafar, 

 Little Dee, and Twrch, while the shores of Bala Lake provide it with a favourite 

 retreat every spring-time. 



" The Common Sandpiper is scarcely a timid bird, though it is apt to resent 

 too close an approach on the part of a would-be observer. Yet, while frequenting 

 the same haunts as the Dipper and Grey Wagtail, facilities for observing it are 

 placed more within our reach from the fact that it is so frequently to be discovered 

 searching for food in exposed places on the gravel and shingle adjoining running 

 streams. It seems to be ever in motion, reminding one in this respect of a 

 characteristic of the Wagtail family, and the tail is incessantly being flirted up 

 and down. The bird shoots suddenly away when alarmed, skimming the water 

 Avith rapid and much curved wings, and uttering a series of piping notes as it 

 quivers along the surface. This note sounds in my ear like a shrill wheet, but it 

 is obviously a question of individual taste as to its merit from a musical point of 

 view. Not the least interesting feature in connection with the study of the species 

 in its accustomed haunts is its mode of alighting with its wings inverted over its 

 back. 



" In spite of what may be urged to the contrary, my experience leads me to 

 think that the Common Sandpiper nests far less often amongst the sand and 

 shingle, covered with docks and other vegetation, directly flanking a river's course 

 than in the secluded banks, overhung with herbage and coarse growths, which 

 abut indirectly on the stream. I only know that I have never discovered a nest 

 in the first-named situation, Avhile I have come upon dozens located in the con- 

 trary one. In May, in the year 1887, I took a nest, containing four eggs, which 

 was placed on the very summit of an isolated pollard-willow adjoining tlic river 

 Lugg, two or three fields distant from Mortimer's Cross. This was a peculiar 

 situation, but it struck me that there was more in it than met the eye ; ' indeed, I 

 credited the owners with a certain amount of reasoning power, for that spring I 

 had tidings of many nests of the Common Sandpiper being built far away from 

 the river's bank, some being found in a wood on a steep hillside a quarter of a 



