382 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



Yarrell mentions an instance of a nest having been 

 placed on the side of a clay-pit, and Meyer says that 

 it breeds on the banks of running streams, where the 

 nest is hidden amongst grasses or under overhanging 

 bushes or trees : the habit of nesting in trees, would, 

 however, appear to be more general than is usually 

 supposed. There is a very interesting paper on the 

 subject by Mr. Alfred Newton, in the ' Zoologist' 

 for 1864, which gives a very full account of the 

 nesting habits of these birds. The Green Sand- 

 piper appears to be rather more than a summer 

 visitor in some counties of England, for Mr. Cor- 

 deaux, writing from North Lincolnshire, speaks of 

 these birds having returned to their winter haunts, 

 the small streams in the neighbourhood.* Yarrell 

 also mentions several instances of their having been 

 met with during the winter months. 



The food of the Green Sandpiper consists mostly 

 of insects and their larvae and worms ; Meyer adds 

 that it never consumes vegetable matter. 



The Green Sandpiper has the beak greenish 

 black ; the irides hazel ; the space between the beak 

 and the eyes is dusky immediately over this is a 

 white streak : the top of the head and back of the 

 neck are dull greenish dusky ; t the back, scapulars, 



* See ' Zoologist ' for 1867 (Second Series), p. 547. 

 f In one of my specimens, probably a young bird of the 

 year, there are a few dull whitish spots on the top of the head. 



