COMMON-SANDPIPER 497 



"twee-te tee-tee twee-te tee-tee" (in litt.). It is, however, quite impossible to 

 convey an adequate impression in words of the sound of this delicate 

 trilling song. It is freely uttered as the bird ascends in a soaring 

 flight to a moderate height, and descends on quivering wings. Of 

 anything in the nature of courting-display on the ground no records 

 appear to exist. Birds may be seen in the spring running along a 

 bank just as redshanks are fond of doing with drooping wings and 

 erected back feathers. These are probably males excited by the 

 presence of their mates, but I have no definite proof. 



On arrival at their breeding-places, the birds lose very little time 

 before commencing operations, as nests with eggs are frequently found 

 in the first week of May, within three weeks of the earliest arrivals in 

 the country. The nest itself is as a rule flimsy, and, after the manner 

 of most Waders, consists of a little dry grass in a hollow scraped in the 

 ground. The sandpiper generally adds a few dead leaves, and in 

 some situations builds a nest altogether of a more substantial kind. 

 Naumann described the nest as better constructed than that of most 

 Waders, and almost as perfect as the nest of the skylark ; but Dresser, 

 who quotes the above, says that he has seen only very poor nests. 1 

 As a rule, but not always, the nests are in the near vicinity of water, 

 amongst the mixed herbage in the side of a bank, on river islands, 

 and the broad beaches in the bend of a stream. They are generally 

 under the shelter of plants, especially dock and butter-bur. Occa- 

 sionally there is no concealment at all, the eggs being laid in a depres- 

 sion on the bare shingle. Less frequently nests may be found a short 

 distance from water, in fields or on railway embankments, where they 

 are generally concealed under bramble sprays. Nests have often been 

 found in gardens. Hatching was carried out successfully in a nest under 

 a raspberry bush, in a garden surrounded by a high wall fifty yards from 

 a river. 2 For five successive years a pair of birds had their nest hi 

 a strawberry bed in a garden in Scotland. 3 Mr. Gray states that nests 



1 Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. p. 133. * Field, 1891, vol. Ixxvii. p. 2M. 



3 Field, 1890, vol. Ixxv. p. 852. 



