460 



the ordinary nesting-habits of other waders, was brought 

 before the notice of British readers by Professor Newton, 

 who published an interesting account of the novel facts in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1863 (pp. 529 

 532). It appears that the first published intimation of 

 the selection of trees as breeding-places was given in * Nau- 

 mannia ' for 1851 and 1852 ; and soon afterwards Herr 

 Wiese narrated in the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie,' 1855, 

 p. 514, how, having been told of this by an old sportsman, 

 he took a clutch of four eggs himself from a simple bed of 

 moss high up in the fork of a pine-tree in the district 

 of Cbslin, Pomerania, where he afterwards found others. 

 Subsequently, Forester Hinz communicated (J. f. 0. 1862, 

 p. 460) ample details respecting the nidification of this 

 species as observed by him in Pomerania since the year 

 1818. The eggs, which have been found as early -as the 16th 

 of April, were frequently placed on old nests of the Song- 

 Thrush, Jay, Blackbird, Missel-Thrush, Wood Pigeon ; once 

 on that of the Red-backed Shrike ; often in squirrels' dreys ; 

 sometimes on the ground ; on the moss on old stumps with 

 only a few leaves under the eggs ; in broken-down trees 

 where Starlings and Pied Flycatchers had previously nested ; 

 on the branches of an old pine-tree where the spines were 

 heaped together ; at elevations varying from 3 to 35 feet ; 

 but always in proximity to ponds. From one of the loftiest 

 nests the young jumped down without injury, and imme- 

 diately hid themselves in the grass. Mr. Seebohm found an 

 old nest which contained one egg of this Sandpiper, about 

 six feet from the ground, in a willow-tree at Egarka on the 

 Yenesei, on the 6th July. The eggs are of a pale greyish- 

 green, with small purplish-brown spots and markings, thicker 

 towards the larger end ; they measure about 1*55 by l a l in. 

 It is supposed that, as with other waders, two females occa- 

 sionally lay in the same nest, as seven eggs are said to have 

 been found in one ; the usual number being four. 



The Green Sandpiper is partial to woodland streams and 

 ponds, and peaty swamps and meadow-drains, and it is seldom 

 found in the vicinity of the sea. It is generally observed 



