The Green Sandpiper. 137 



at work with their long bills ; each effort comes 

 to the same provoking conclusion, the bird sud- 

 denly shooting up from beneath your feet, just at 

 a place which you fancied you had most carefully 

 scanned. When they first arrive they will fly 

 only to a short distance, and the bright white of 

 their upper tail-feathers enables you to mark them 

 down easily for a second attempt ; but after a few 

 days they will rise high in the air, like a snipe, 

 when disturbed, and uttering their shrill pipe, 

 circle round and round, and finally vanish. 



It should be noted that this species is called 

 the Green Sandpiper because its legs are green ; 

 such are the wilful ways of English terminology. 1 

 It is the only Sandpiper we have, beside the 

 common species, which invariably prefers the 

 Evenlode, where it may every now and then be 

 seen working its rapid way along the edge of the 

 water, quite unconcerned at a spectator, and 

 declining to go off like a champagne cork. Both 

 kinds come in spring and late summer, but the 



1 Mr. Aplin tells me, however, that the upper parts, in 

 summer at least, "have a decided wash or gloss of green": 

 Mr. Seebohm calls it " dull olive-brown." 



