338 



BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



or dull black. Legs and toes pale bluish-green ; 

 claws dark brown. 



The female resembles the male. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground ; in a 

 hole in a bank, under the shelter of a tuft of grass, 



COMMON SANDPIPER'S NEST AND EGGS. 



in a tuft of rushes ; sometimes in a slight declivity 

 on the bare ground, or in a patch of grass amongst 

 large stones on a little river island ; on the banks 

 of rivers, mountain streams with rough, gravelly, 

 and rocky banks, lakes, tarns, and reservoirs, and on 

 the sea shore in the extreme south-west of England 

 (Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset), Wales, the six 

 northern counties of England, Derbyshire, Cheshire, 



