COMMON SANDPIPER. 657 



adapted to insure their safety in the unfledged state. 

 The authors of the Catalogue of the Norfolk and Suffolk 

 Birds say, " Some years since we saw a Sandpiper flying 

 across a river attacked by a Hawk, when it instantly dived, 

 and remained under water until its enemy disappeared. 

 It then emerged, and joined its companions. This bird 

 when flushed sometimes utters a note resembling, as near 

 as possible, that of the Kingfisher." Montagu says, 

 " Having shot at and winged one of this species as it 

 was flying across a piece of water, it fell, and floated 

 towards the verge, and as we reached to take it up, the 

 bird instantly dived, and we never saw it rise again to the 

 surface." A correspondent in a midland county wrote me 

 word, that he had seen this bird perch occasionally upon 

 projecting roots and stumps of trees by the river side ; 

 that when diving, it uses its wings under water the same 

 as in flying ; and on one occasion when he had shot at, 

 and slightly wounded, a bird that fell about twenty yards 

 on the opposite side of a brook, no sooner was it down 

 than it turned back, and made direct for the water as still 

 affording the chance of escape. 



M. Nilsson says this species is common in Scandinavia 

 from April to August. Linneus, in his Tour in Lapland, 

 mentions having found a nest with four eggs near the water 

 side at Flaskesele, in Lycksehe Lapland, on the 31st of 

 May, 1732, old style. This species is also known to visit 

 the west coast of Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and 

 Greenland. 



The Common Sandpiper is seen over the greater part of 

 Europe from the spring till its autumn migration, when it 

 goes southward, and is observed in Provence, Italy, Sicily, 

 and Malta. The Zoological Society have received speci- 

 mens from Tangiers ; and Mr. Fellows mentions having 

 shot specimens at Xanthus, in Asia Minor. Colonel Sykes, 



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