498 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



are occasionally found in gardens and orchards on the banks of the 

 Clyde near Lanark, under bushes, in flower-pots, and among growing 

 plants. He adds that one year the birds that frequented the river- 

 side, having had their first nests destroyed by flood, withdrew from the 

 river to some turnip fields a short distance off, where they made fresh 

 nests. 1 A similar instance was recorded by Dr. Williams as occurring 

 in Herefordshire. The sandpipers, whose nests were as usual under 

 dock-leaves on the gravel beach of the river, were twice flooded out 

 in 1886. In 1887 they deserted the river for some adjacent grass 

 fields, where most of them made their nests under bushes. One nest 

 was found in the head of a pollard willow. Although the river was 

 normal in this year and again in 1888, the sandpipers continued to 

 nest in the fields until 1889, when they all returned to the old river- 

 side sites. 2 Although not exactly gregarious, yet in favoured localities, 

 where the nesting-grounds follow the line of a stream, a pair of birds 

 may be found every twenty or thirty yards. They may be seen 

 constantly crossing the water in low flight, often making rings on the 

 surface with the tips of their arched wings. Just before they alight 

 they raise their wings high up above their backs, leisurely closing them 

 as they feel the ground. The whistling notes hardly cease as the birds 

 call to each other, or sound an alarm on taking flight to the other 

 side of the stream. They are seldom still or silent. As they walk 

 or run nimbly about on the sand or mud by the river's edge, they 

 constantly flirt their rather long tails, and work their heads up and 

 down in a peculiar jerky manner. The latter action is characteristic 

 of the whole genus. It is not exactly a bob, but is produced by a 

 sudden elongation and an equally sudden contraction of the neck. 

 The result is full of quaint grace and charm. Often one will rest on 

 a large stone in the shallow water, frequently flirting its head and tail. 

 The common-sandpiper takes very freely to the water, wading in the 

 shallows, and on occasion swimming and diving with dexterity. An 

 instance of one taking to water to escape a hawk is quoted from the 



1 Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 297. 2 Zoologist, 1896, pp. 372, 373. 



