BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 113 



V 



beck " in this parish has always been a very favourite 

 haunt of this species. I have little doubt that the 

 Green Sandpiper has occasionally remained to breed 

 in the vicinity of this stream. I have known a pair or 

 two remain with us all through the summer, and have 

 likewise seen them early in August along with the 

 young birds, which did not appear much more than 

 half-grown. The fish-keeper, who looks after the 

 stream, says that he has yearly observed the old and 

 young about this date; on July 31st, 1868, he 

 saw two old and two young birds together. In the 

 same season a farmer, who occupies land bordering 

 the stream in the adjoining parish of Aylesby, and 

 who is as well acquainted with these birds as I am, 

 told me that he was quite certain they had that year 

 nested in the neighbourhood. He had seen them 

 about one particular spot through the summer, and 

 some time about the end of July noticed four young 

 birds along with the old ones sitting on a sandbank 

 in the "beck." He said "they were quite little 

 things/' and could " only fly a few yards at once ; " 

 they were "quite a different colour to the old birds" 

 "much lighter." He nearly every day for some 

 weeks after this saw the old and young together, and 

 one day shot one of the young, which he said " was 

 about as large as a Jack Snipe." 



Mr. Stevenson, in a note to his paper on this 

 species (' Birds of Norfolk/ vol. ii. p. 226), on the 

 authority of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., says: 'Mr. 



