64 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



this bird has few foes, though here the Sparrow-hawk 

 occasionally takes toll from its numbers. Here is a 

 case in point: On May 13th of last year, when 

 rambling by the Wye, a little male Sparrow-hawk 

 came gliding over a hedge adjoining the river and 

 struck a Sandpiper fair and square on the wing. 

 The little wader dropped to the blow, whilst for a 

 second the Hawk seemed quite dazed by the force of 

 his impact, but shortly recovering himself bore off 

 his prey to a large hanging larch wood close by, 

 where his mate and he had their large, flat, straggling 

 nest. 



This Sandpiper reaches our shores during the first 

 week of that delicious month April, though there are 

 earlier records ; and a month after this the important 

 business of the year commences. The four eggs are 

 very large for the size of the bird, while the nest is 

 very scanty, nothing more than a few dried leaves 

 and a little withered grass ; indeed, we have seen the 

 eggs reposing on little more than mother earth, but 

 the moister the site, the more substantial is the nest. 

 The eggs differ somewhat, both in colour and mark- 

 ings, but those in the same clutch are invariably of 

 one type. They range from buff to huffish yellow in 

 ground ; blotched and spotted with reddish and 

 purplish brown with underlying spots of grey. Very 

 pyriform in shape, they are always placed with the 

 small ends pointing inwards, so as to take up as little 

 room as possible. What a wavering, uncertain flight 

 this Sandpiper has ! Often when watching them 

 from some leafy retreat by the stream we have 

 almost expected to see them fall headlong into the 



