

COMMON SANDPIPER. 297 



together, a series of shrill, though not unpleasant, pipings, which 

 on calm and sultry days are indeed the only bird voices to be 

 heard. Throughout the western Highlands, it is known by the 

 name of the "little fiddler," and is always welcomed by the 

 natives as a glad messenger from the sunny south. In some 

 places it is called Tdllileepie a name evidently derived from its 

 oft-repeated cry. 



On the mainland it is still more common, being found on the 

 banks of every stream and inland loch from Sutherland to Wigtown. 

 It breeds in considerable numbers on the sandy and pebbly margins 

 of Loch Lomond, from which it frequently ascends the mountain 

 streams, and encamps on their banks at an elevation of twelve or 

 fourteen hundred feet above the level of the loch. In spring time 

 small parties are seen following the course of the river Clyde from 

 the sea to the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, where numerous pairs 

 take up their summer quarters. I have seen it occasionally in 

 gardens and orchards on the banks of the Clyde near the town of 

 Lanark, forming its nest under bushes in flower plots and among 

 growing plants. Mr Alston informs me of having taken similar 

 notes on its nesting habits near Lesmahagow; but in such cases it 

 is invariably found in the immediate vicinity of water. Frequently 

 I have seen pairs select a turnip field contiguous to the water of 

 Girvan, and lay their eggs under the leaves of the growing plants 

 a habit acquired from experience of previous floods which had 

 for one or two seasons in succession swept away their nests from 

 the banks of shingle on which most persons, as well as birds, 

 would have thought them safe against such a mishap. The fact 

 of these Sandpipers transferring their nursery to the fields on the 

 other side of the embankment, and persistently remaining in their 

 new quarters, shows that the same pairs frequented the river on 

 their return to this country, and had a wise recollection of their 

 bygone misfortunes. On the banks of Loch Eck in Argyleshire, I 

 have seen this bird in early summer flying among the big grey 

 boulders on the mountain side at some distance from the water, 

 and alighting at times among the rank heather, as if their nests or 

 young were there. In the immediate neighbourhood of Glasgow 

 it also appears regularly in spring in places surrounded with 

 buildings, but is generally found by the side of rain pools or old 

 quarries, where it seems as much at home as when skimming the 

 clearest loch or river, crossing and re-crossing the stagnant water, 



