104 BRITISH WSEAS TRIDS. 
England, and in Scotland. It is one of the earliest 
waders to quit the coast in spring, and to retire 
to its nesting places, which are fen and marsh 
lands, swampy moors, and the boggy shores of lochs 
and tarns. Numbers of nests may be found within 
a small area of suitable ground, and certain spots 
appear to be visited annually for breeding purposes, 
in some cases even after the district, by reclamation, 
has lost its original marshy character. The nest is 
slight, but usually well concealed, often beneath 
the shade of a tuft of grass or other herbage, or in 
a hassock of sedge or under a little bush or tall weed. 
It consists of a mere hollow scantily lined with a few 
bits of withered grass or leaves. The four eggs are 
very pyriform in shape, and vary from pale buff to 
dark buff, handsomely and boldly blotched and 
spotted with rich dark brown, paler brown and gray. 
When disturbed the old birds become very noisy 
and excited, careering wildly to and fro, and 
should the young be hatched they become even 
more demonstrative, and by various antics seek 
to decoy an intruder away. A return to the coast 
is made as soon as the young are sufficiently 
matured. Many eggs of this bird are gathered 
and sold as ‘‘ Plover’s eggs.” 
SANDERLING. 
During the period of its spring and autumn 
migrations—especially the latter—this pretty little 
bird, the Zvinga arenaria of ornithologists who 
