on stone walls, and I saw one bird which habitually ran backwards and forwards 

 on the dead branch of a Scotch fir fully twenty feet from the ground. 



The food of the Common Sandpiper consists chiefly of the larvae of 

 insects, worms, beetles, seeds, which it catches on the banks of the streams or 

 among the droppings of the cattle. The Common Sandpiper is occasionally 

 known to swim, of which fact I have been a witness. I was resting beside 

 a shallow burn which ran into the Lake of Monteith one June day in 1893, 

 and was lazily watching a Common Sandpiper catching insects on the shore 

 on the far side of the burn, gradually working its way towards me. Its mate 

 must have been somewhere behind me, as I heard it call once or twice. The 

 bird paused for a moment beside the stream when it came to it, and bobbed 

 its head up and down before running into the water, which it crossed, being 

 carried down a little way by the slight current. It jerked its head all the 

 time it was crossing like a Water-hen. I hardly took in at first that it had 

 actually swum across, but on my getting up the bird flew away, and I found 

 that the water was fully eleven inches deep in the middle of the pool. 



The nesting-season of the Common Sandpiper begins about the second 

 week in May. The nest is usually not very far from the water, and is generally 

 placed on some dry bank under cover of some stone or tuft of heather or grass ; 

 sometimes under a bramble-bush or dock-weed plant. On some occasions the 

 nest is found several hundred yards from water, on dry banks in a wood or near 

 a hedge. It is usually little more than a slight hollow scratched in the ground 

 and scantily lined with a little dry grass, dead leaves, or bits of dead fern. 



Four eggs are laid, which are fairly large in comparison with the size of 

 the bird. The ground-colour may be any shade between pale greenish white 

 and rich cream colour, blotched and spotted with light red and dark brown, 

 and with purple grey undermarkings. The spots are not very large as a rule, 

 and vary in size from tiny specks to a fair-sized pea; they are generally most 

 numerous on the large end of the egg, and sometimes form a zone round it. 

 On some specimens most of the spots are confluent on the large end, and form 

 an irregular blotch there, gradually becoming scattered towards the small end. 

 They vary from r6 to 1-3 inch in length, and from ri to -98 inch in breadth, 

 and are very pyriform in shape. 



Young in down are pale grey speckled with black on the upper parts, 

 which are brownish. They are often found in the nest for many hours after 

 they are hatched. The old birds are very attentive to them, and display great 

 anxiety if any danger threatens them, tumbling and fluttering along the ground 

 and trying to draw away the intruder. 



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