302 LAKES AND STREAMS 



and is thus an eminently unsociable species. Occasionally it may be pursued by 

 two or tbree wagtails, when it will show its indignation by violent screams ; it 

 is not unlike a wagtail in its habits and gestures, as it is never still and has 

 the same trick of jerking its tail up and down, and moving its head by stretching 

 and drawing back its neck. This bird flies quickly and lightly, at one moment 

 gliding easily with bent wings, and then shooting ahead with many vigorous 

 flaps, generally keeping so low that it seems to touch the surface of the water 

 with the tips of its pinions, which it holds almost upright as it alights and runs. 

 It escapes from danger by swimming and diving, working with both feet and 

 wings and remaining almost for a minute at a time under water. 



The nest is a hollow lined with grass or moss, always near water, generally 

 on a sloping bank by the side of a willow-bush or in a heap of drifted wood well 

 protected by plants and small irregularities in the ground, with a clear way to the 

 water-side. Worms and insects, especially gnats and their larvas, which live in 

 numbers near flowing water, are the principal food of the sandpiper, which pre- 

 pares for migration in the first half of July, and by the middle of September is 

 only seen in out-of-the-way places. It ranges over Europe, Asia, northern 

 Africa, and North America. In some parts of the Continent it appears 

 on migration, often in districts away from water, and is very rare as a breeding- 

 bird. In length the sandpiper measures rather more than 7 inches. In colour 

 it is brown above, with dark streaks and waves, and white below, while the front 

 part of the neck and the throat are white with thin brown streaks. The wing- 

 feathers are much patched with white, the upper tail-coverts brown, the wings 

 barred with white, the axillaries white and the legs olive. 



Another well-known species is the green sandpiper (T. ochropus), 

 Green Sandpiper. .... . . i 



which lives in situations similar to those frequented by the last, and 



also on the banks of ponds, rivers, and brooks amid forest-trees, alders, willows, 

 reeds, rushes, and grass, keeping so well under covert that it is seldom seen from a 

 distance. A solitary bird, the green sandpiper walks and stands with the body 

 horizontal, frequently stretching out and drawing back its neck, and nodding its 

 head. It wades but never swims or dives. In flight it is graceful and swift, not 

 opening the wings wide, but moving them powerfully and quickly, and almost clos- 

 ing them as it glides for long distances, though never so low as to skim the water. 

 At pairing-time the male rises in the air like a snipe. The hen rarely nests on the 

 ground but generally in a tree, and though the eggs have been found on patches of 

 moss and lichen, where a branch forks off, as a rule she takes possession of the 

 deserted nest of one of the thrushes or of a wood-pigeon, jay, or crow, or even a 

 squirrel's drey. Essentially a bird of the north, the green sandpiper ranges from 

 the Arctic Circle southwards, never breeding in the British Isles, though it does so 

 in Holstein and the Baltic provinces. South of these it is known only as a migrant, 

 its migration taking it into Africa, India, and China. In central Germany, as in 

 Britain, it remains during the greater part of the year, and goes northwards in the 

 summer to its nesting-grounds. It feeds on worms, insects, and water-snails, and 

 is over 8 inches long, and easily recognisable, especially when on the wing, by the 

 white of its tail and upper tail-coverts, which is shown off by the dark greenish 

 brown of the back and wings. 



