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waders of the Stint and Sandpiper families. Thus it is almost 

 always the male which sits, and leads the young brood, in Tringa 

 striata (the Purple Sandpiper, Norwegian "Fjaerepist " = " Ebb- 

 piper ") and T. temmincki, as well as in the Greenshank (Tetanus 

 canescens), the Wood Sandpiper (T. glareold)* and others ; and if 

 both parents are present, the male is always the bolder, the 

 female more cautious, and also in better condition, than her 

 mate. 



In company with Phalaropus there commonly live a few pairs 

 of Temminck's Stint (Tringa temmincki). This northern species, 

 hardly larger than a sparrow, is numerous in heather-covered 

 localities in the arctic parts of Norway, and here generally nests 

 in small colonies on low-lying tracts overgrown with willows 

 and Empetrum, not far from the shore, sometimes even in the 

 middle of the small plots of meadow by the Laplanders' huts, if 

 only there are small pools of water in the neighbourhood where 

 they can search for food. At these regular feeding-places they 

 put in an appearance several times a day during the nesting 

 season to look for food. 



During the whole time of laying, the male of this little sand- 

 piper performs a peculiar play, consisting of flying exercises, 

 combined with song, all to amuse his mate during the first 

 period of their wedded life. With quivering wings he mounts, 

 almost like a lark, singing and twittering, up in the air. Here 

 he flies about, in a circle, at an inconsiderable height, during a 

 trilling passage of the song, and sinks at last with raised wings, 

 still singing, down upon a stone or on the top of a bush. The 

 common Dunlin (Tringa alpina) also has a similar but far less 

 elaborate play, and it is also known in the Knot (Tringa canutus). 



There still remains to be mentioned, among the island's 

 small waders, the smallest of them all, Tringa minuta. This 

 Little Stint of the far north, it is true, appears during the 

 migration periods, sometimes even in large numbers, alike in the 

 south of Norway and on the other coasts of Western Europe, 

 but about its summer haunts, and its breeding history, there 



* The Norwegian name of this species is Gronbenet Sneppe= Green- 

 legged Sandpiper, while that of the Greenshank is Glutsneppe=a corruption of 

 7/<?//zV-Sandpiper. Trans I. 



