GRALLATORES. 175 



These birds, in autumn, keep in little family 

 parties of five or six, until their numbers have been 

 thinned by the sportsman, who discovers that, like 

 many other Sandpipers, they are a good substitute 

 for Snipe, both as regards sport and food. As the 

 autumn advances, they leave the open sheets of 

 water, such as reservoirs and large ponds, where 

 they may be first seen on their return, and betake 

 themselves to the more sheltered brooks, where they 

 run along the edge of 'the water under the shelving 

 bank, and seldom appear in the more exposed and 

 deeper portions of the stream. 



By crawling on hands and knees I have sometimes 

 been enabled to watch a Green Sandpiper unob- 

 servedly, and when on the ground it looks very 

 small compared with its appearance when flying. 



It is more sluggish in its movements than the 

 Common Sandpiper, and, when in search of food, 

 it works one piece of ground thoroughly before 

 trying another. Now the Common Sandpiper gets 

 over the ground at a great rate, picking up a bit 

 here and a bit there, but probably leaving a good 

 deal behind, and in this respect reminding us of 

 the too-eager sportsman in the Partridge season 

 who does not half work his ground, and leaves many 

 birds behind him. 



The Green Sandpiper, however, is not so much a 

 surface feeder, but bores a good deal for its food, 

 and I have often seen a small tract of mud 



