226 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



having been cleared, and the mud thrown out on the 

 sides," these birds were remarked in parties of five or 

 six. The same author describes them, most accurately, 

 as being always fat but having a "fulsome muddy smell," 

 and their note, he says, is " probably the loudest of any 

 of our fen birds " considering its size. This clear shrill 

 whistle may be heard distinctly when the bird is passing 

 over at a great height, and I have occasionally distin- 

 guished it on dark autumnal nights, not blended with 

 the cries of other birds, but apparently uttered by some 

 straggler, bewildered by the lights of the city and 

 calling loudly in its flight. Mr. Harting, who gives 

 a full and most interesting account of this sandpiper 

 from his own observations (" Birds of Middlesex "), 

 describes its food as consisting of " insects, chiefly small 

 beetles, spiders, small red worms, and wood-lice," to 

 which I may add small fresh water-snails, found in 

 the stomach of one killed at Langley in the month of 

 December.* 



TOTANUS GLAREOLA (Linnaeus). 

 WOOD-SANDPIPER. 



This species, as compared with the green sandpiper, 

 is a rare visitant to our coast, appearing only occa- 

 sionally, and at uncertain intervals, on its migratory 



* Since the above was in type, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has 

 kindly communicated the following note on this species: "Mr. 

 Alfred Eoberts, of the Museum at Scarborough, has had the green 

 sandpiper (T. ochropus) several times from the neighbourhood of 

 Hunmanby, in all cases shot in June. The keeper there says they 

 breed in old crows' nests ; he has seen them come off from the 

 nests." 



