Birds. 9115 
Gray Plover on the Lincolnshire Coast.—The gray plover is now very plentiful on 
the coast. These birds, I notice, visit us in much larger numbers during the spring 
than on their return south in the autumn. A large flock, which I noticed through a 
geod glass to day (May 10th) was composed of birds in every state of plumage, from 
the full summer dress, the under parts deep black, bordered with white, to others with 
their breast mottled with white, and some showing as yet little change from the usual 
winter garb, except a slightly darker plumage. The gray plover and the whimbrel are 
the last to leave our coast in the spring. I have seen them on the Humber flats, in 
considerable numbers, as late as the 27th of May.—John Cordeaux ; Great Cotes, 
Uleeby, Lincolnshire. 
Note on the Whimbrel on the Lincolnshire Coast.—Amongst the many waders 
which for a time frequent the wide mud flats bordering the Humber at this season, 
on their passage northward, the whimbrel is this year unusually plentiful. On the 6th 
uf May I counted in one flock alone upwards of eighty of these birds, and the same 
morning saw several smaller flocks in the neighbourhood feeding on the mud flats and 
in the grass marshes; indeed they appear to be of much more frequent occurrence on 
this coast than formerly. During the last year or two I have noticed a very con- 
siderable increase in the numbers which visit us, both during the spring and autumn, 
I was talking the other day to an old gunner who has been nearly all his life a wild 
fowl shooter on this coast; he told me that he never remembered in any previous 
season anything like the number of whimbrel we have had this year, and had not 
before known them to congregate in such large flocks.—TJd. 
On the Breeding of the Green Sandpiper (Helodromas ochropus).—Ornithologists 
are aware of the very different positions often chosen for their nests by birds of the 
same species. Thus eagles may be found sometimes building their eyries upon trees, 
at others on cliffs, and again sometimes absolutely upon the flat ground. The same 
may be said of some species of faleons and of some herons. Certain crows also and the 
stock dove (Columba enas) exhibit a like disparity of habit. Even among the members 
of the Gallinacevus order a similar diversity is occasionally, though rarely, to be ob- 
served. I have been told, on authority I cannot question, of acommon pheasant (Phasi- 
anus colchicus) and of a capercally (Yetrao urogallus) each choosing a nest in a tree 
wherein to lay its eggs. Instances of the common wild duck (Anas boschas) breeding 
in hollow stumps of trees are very frequent; and with the ducks of the genus Aix this 
seems to be the normal mode of nidification. But, excepting in the last case, this 
peculiarity in the selection of a site for the nest seems to result from the particular 
fancy (or instinct, it may be) of the individual; and in that exceptional case the general 
habits of the birds are so essentially arboreal that we need-not wonder at the fact of 
their using trees for their nurseries as well as for their usual places of lodging. The 
only instances parallel to the one I am going to adduce are, so far as I can call to 
mind, those of the goldeneye (Clangula glaucion), the goosander (Mergus serrator), and 
the smew (Mergus albellus). Each of these three birds departs from the manner of 
nidification which obtains among its brethren, just as I shall show that the green 
sandpiper (Helodromas ochropus*) does. Though I do not pretend to lay before you 
* The osteology of the Tringa ochropus, Linn., presents such a marked deviation 
from that of the other Totani which I have examined, that I do not hesitate in this 
case to follow Dr. Kaup in considering it the type of a distinct genus. 
