444 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



occasionally recorded in the summer months. On the west and north coasts of 

 Scotland it is rare, and it is an uncommon visitor to the Irish coasts, occurring 

 between August and February (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 297). 

 (See p. 501.) [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. It is only within the last fifty years that the remark- 

 able breeding-habits of this species have become known. Instead of nesting on the 

 ground, it generally deposits its eggs in the deserted nest of some other bird, 

 occasionally in a squirrel's drey, or in an accumulation of dead leaves, pine-needles, 

 etc., in some hollow among the branches, or on a broken stump. On rare occasions 

 it is said to have nested on the ground. The usual nests in which the eggs are 

 found are those of the song-thrush, blackbird, fieldfare, mistle-thrush, wood- 

 pigeon, turtle-dove, redbacked-shrike, jay, or crow, and swampy forest, especially 

 in the neighbourhood of water, is the most likely ground. A little moss (Hypnum) 

 or a few twigs of heather (Calluna) are placed under the eggs. The eggs are four 

 in number, pyriform in shape, and vary in ground-colour from pale green or greenish 

 grey to warm ochreous, and are finely spotted with dark purplish brown (sometimes 

 reddish in tone) and underlying ashy grey shellmarks. Although seven eggs have 

 been found in a single nest, they were probably laid by two hens. Average size 

 of 37 eggs, 1-55 x T09 in. [39'5 x 27'7 mm.]. The incubation period and the share 

 of the sexes in the work are not known. Eggs may be found from the last week 

 of April onwards in Central Europe (exceptionally by mid-April), but more 

 commonly during May in Scandinavia, or even early in June, while on the Yenisei 

 Seebohm found a fresh egg on 6th July. Apparently only one brood is reared in 

 the season. [F. c. R. jr.] 



5. Food. In the breeding season, chiefly insects especially beetles; mos- 

 quitos and other Diptera and their larvae, spiders, woodlice and other crustaceans, 

 small freshwater snails and a little vegetable matter, algae, and tender shoots of 

 plants ; on the shore, various thin-skinned crustaceans and small molluscs. A 

 strong odour pervades the body of this species, which remains in some specimens 

 for years. It is not unlike the scent of some woodpeckers and the hoopoe. No 

 definite information is available as to the food of the young, [w. F.] 



