210 Order XIII 



autumn to spring on our flatter shores, though rarer 

 in the west, and an occasional pair appears still to 

 nest on the Norfolk Broads. Abroad its summer 

 range includes Scandinavia and Russia, Holland, north 

 France, north Germany, Poland, and northern Asia. 

 The male's flight, laboured in the " time of ruff," is 

 at other times swift and direct, as is that of the female .; 

 the note is a low reiterated " whit " ; the food is both 

 of insects and seeds, with worms and no doubt small 

 creatures of the shore, where the birds are sometimes 

 found in moderate-sized flocks. They used to be caught 

 in huge numbers in the fen-lands for fattening both 

 in autumn and spring; in the latter season the Ruffs 

 were netted when "hilling," that is, gathering on the 

 drier knolls to shew off to the Reeves, and sparring, 

 as polygamous birds are wont to do. The four olive- 

 green eggs with somewhat oblique brown markings are 

 laid in short herbage on a slight bed of grass. 



The Common Sandpiper (Tringoides hypoleucus) is 

 not a shore-bird, though found near the mouths of 

 tidal streams on migration about September. It comes 

 to us in April, and soon occupies its breeding grounds, 

 which are typically on the stony stretches of fast-running 

 rivers and on lakes in hill-districts. Naturally therefore 

 it is seldom found in southern and south-eastern 

 England, but elsewhere its short sharp flight before 

 an intruder, its plaintive trill, and constant state of 

 excitement near the nest are well-known character- 

 istics. There is nothing unusual in the food of insects, 

 worms, and so forth, but the bird can hover a little, 

 uttering a sort of song. The foreign range extends 

 from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic 

 Islands, the Himalayas and Japan ; in winter the bird 



