PLATE II 

 COMMON SANDPIPER. Totanus hypoleucus 



June \st, 1893. This nest was built under a bramble-bush in a wood by the 

 side of a small loch in South Perthshire. It was a slight hollow in the ground 

 lined very carefully and neatly with tiny sticks, a dead leaf or two, and a great 

 many dead spines of the Scotch fir. The old bird was very wary, and we 

 saw her running away from the nest long before we got near. 



I got two photographs taken of it, and then lay down beside a tree not 

 far off and watched for the return of the old bird. In about a quarter of an 

 hour she came back and alighted on the roof of an old boat-house, running 

 up and down and calling anxiously, bobbing her head and jerking her 

 tail. After a few minutes she flew down on to the ground near the nest, 

 and began running away from it, disappearing behind some brushwood ; I 

 caught sight of her a few moments after stealing quietly up from a different 

 direction, stopping every now and then and stretching out her neck, some- 

 times calling inquiringly, being usually answered by her mate from some 

 point on the shore. After running backwards and forwards two or three 

 times, she got quite near the nest and sneaked in under the bush, raising 

 her wings for a few seconds before settling herself on the nest. When she 

 had been settled for a few minutes I stood quietly up ; she immediately rose 

 off the nest and tumbled and fluttered across an open piece of grass, rising 

 finally at the edge of the loch and alighting some way off, where she called 

 occasionally until I had gone away. 



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