io 4 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



England, and in Scotland. It is one of the earliest 

 waders to quit the coast in spring, and to retire 

 to its nesting places, which are fen and marsh 

 lands, swampy moors, and the boggy shores of lochs 

 and tarns. Numbers of nests may be found within 

 a small area of suitable ground, and certain spots 

 appear to be visited annually for breeding purposes, 

 in some cases even after the district, by reclamation, 

 has lost its original marshy character. The nest is 

 slight, but usually well concealed, often beneath 

 the shade of a tuft of grass or other herbage, or in 

 a hassock of sedge or under a little bush or tall weed. 

 It consists of a mere hollow scantily lined with a few 

 bits of withered grass or leaves. The four eggs are 

 very pyriform in shape, and vary from pale buff to 

 dark buff, handsomely and boldly blotched and 

 spotted with rich dark brown, paler brown and gray. 

 When disturbed the old birds become very noisy 

 and excited, careering wildly to and fro, and 

 should the young be hatched they become even 

 more demonstrative, and by various antics seek 

 to decoy an intruder away. A return to the coast 

 is made as soon as the young are sufficiently 

 matured. Many eggs of this bird are gathered 

 and sold as " Plover's eggs." 



SANDERLING. 



During the period of its spring and autumn 

 migrations especially the latter this pretty little 

 bird, the Tringa arenaria of ornithologists who 



