Their Eggs and Nests, 179 



slightly constructed of a few bits of grass amidst a 

 tuft of herbage, or in a small hole or cavity which is 

 sheltered by some of the taller-growing marine plants. 

 The eggs are usually four in number, occasionally but 

 two or three, of a cream-colour (sometimes dashed 

 with a somewhat warmer hue) spotted and speckled 

 with dark brown. The spots are less and more 

 numerous than in the case of the Peewit's 62:2:. In 

 the case of the last nest I found, now many years 

 since, the old bird suffered me to walk within 

 a yard of her before taking flight. When the young- 

 are newly hatched the parent birds betray excessive 

 jealousy and anxiety at the approach of either man 

 or dog to their resort. They have sometimes come 

 and settled on the ground within two or three paces 

 of me, and, at others, flown so directly towards me, as 

 to suggest the possible intention of attacking me, 

 piping most plaintively and incessantly the while. 

 This conduct is designated by the term " mobbing," 

 on the Essex marshes. — Fig. ^^^ plate VIII. 



SPOTTED REDSHANK— (r^/^;^?^j fiiscus). 



Spotted Snipe, Dusky Sandpiper, Black-headed 

 Snipe. — A bird which varies much in plumage 

 according to season, being almost black in the 

 summer — but only an occasional visitor, and scarcely 

 anything known certainly of its nest or breeding 

 habits. 



YELLOW-SHANKED SANDPIPER— ( Totanus 

 Jlavipes). 



Exceedingly rare, 



