696 THE AVOCET. 



The Common Sandpiper or Summer Snipe is a well-known visitor to tliis countiy, and 

 has derived its name of Summer Snipe from its habit of remaining in England only 

 during the summer months, arriving here about April or May and leaving before 

 October. 



It is a pretty and lively little bird, running about the edges of rivers, lakes, or ponds, 

 poking in aU directions after food, and occasionally swimming or diving when alarmed. 

 Even the young liirds, before they can fly, will take instinctively to the water when 

 frightened, and plunging beneath the waves will dive to some distance before they again 

 rise to the surface. I have seen three or four of them follow each other into a river like 

 so many sheep through a gate, disappearing below the water and not emerging within 

 sight. The river was a winding one, and the banks were thickly studded with trees, so 

 that I believe the birds to have emerged just round a neighbouring bend of the stream. 

 Owing to the dark shadows of the trees I could not see the birds when iinder water, but 

 it is said to employ its wings in urging itself along. 



The nest of the Sandpiper is made on the ground, mostly on a bank of a river, 

 or sometimes in a field in the vicinity of water. The mother-bird is careful of her eggs 

 and young ; and has a habit of feigning lameness, after the well-known custom of the 

 lapwing, when any intruder comes near her nest. A correspondent of the " Magazine of 

 Natural History " gives an interesting account of the Sandpiper and her little family. 

 " I this year started an old one from her nest at the root of a fir-tree. She screamed out, 

 and rolled about in such a manner, and seemed so completely disabled, that, although 

 perfectly aware that her intention was to allure me from her nest, I could not resist my 

 inclination to p\irsue her ; and in consequence I had great difficulty in finding the 

 nest again. 



It was built of a few dried leaves of the Weymouth pine, and contained three young 

 ones, just hatched, and an egg, through the shell of which the bill of the young chick was 

 just making its way. Yet, young as they were, on my taking out the egg to examine it, the 

 little things, which could not have been out of their shells more than an hour or two, set off 

 out of the nest with as much celerity as if they had been running about for a fortnight. 

 As I thought the old one would abandon the egg if the young ones left the nest, I caught 

 them again, and covering them up with my hand for some time, they settled down again. 

 Next day all four had disappeared." 



The top of tlio head, back of the neck, back, upper tail-coverts, and central feathers of 

 the tail are greenish brown mottled with black, each feather being darker on the centre 

 than on the edges. The secondaries are tipped with white, and all the black primaries, 

 except the first, have a patch of greyish white on the inner web. From the base of the 

 beak to the eye runs a dark streak, and a light coloured stripe passes over the eye. The 

 tail is barred with greenish black ; most of the feathers are tipped and patched with 

 white. The chin is white, the upper part of the breast ashen grey streaked with brown, 

 and the whole of the nnder surface of the body is snowy white. The average length 

 of the Sandpiper is between seven and eight inches. 



Several other members of this sub-family are inhabitants of England ; among which 

 may be named the Common and Spotted Eedshank, the Wood Sandpiper, the Greenshank, 

 the Spotted and Buff-breasted Sandpipers. 



The AvoCET is one of the most remarkable among English birds, and is easily 

 recognisable by its long, curiously curved beak, and its boldly pied plumage. 



The Avocet is not a common bird in England, and is now but seldom seen, though in 

 former days it used to be tolerably plentiful on the sea-coasts and in marshy lands. The 

 long and oddly curved beak is very slender and pointed, and from its peculiar shape has 

 earned for its owner the name of Cobbler's Awl Bird. While obtaining its food the 

 Avocet scoops the mud with its beak, leaving sundry unmistakable marks behind ; and 

 is called in some countries the Scooper. The food of the Avocet consists almost wholly 

 of worms, insects, and little crustaceans ; and while the liird is engaged in the search 

 after these creatures, it paddles over the oozy mud with its webbed feet and traverses 

 the soft surface with much ease and some celerity. The cry of the Avocet is a sharp, 



