Birds. 9117 
‘Eier der Europaischen Vogel,’ wherein (fol. xxx. No. 5) Helodromus ochropns was 
treated of, and a concise summary of the foregoing accounts was given. This was 
remarked upon by the writer of an article in the ‘ Ibis’ for 1859 (vol. i. p. 405), and 
thus the curious facts which I have above detailed were made generally known, for 
the first time I believe, to English readers. In 1860 a short recapitulation of them 
was also published by my friend Dr. Baldamus, in the continuation of Naumann’s 
celebrated ‘ Vogel Deutschlands’ (vol. xiii. p. 241). Towards the close of the same 
year also that excellent observer who veils his name under the:signature of “ An Old 
Bushman” contributed a series of articles to the ‘ Field’ newspaper, in which be 
described his own experience of the green sandpiper’s way of nesting in Sweden. The 
Natural-History editor of that paper, not knowing what had been already written, 
exhibited some signs of scepticism on the subject, whereupon his correspondent 
reiterated his statement, saying (‘ Field, No. 411, November 10, 1860, p. 393), that 
“there is no doubt about the matter,” and adding that he “ never took the nest on the 
ground.” I have now only to read to you a portion of a letter, dated November 27, 
1861, which I received from my friend Pastor Theobald, of Copenhagen. He says as 
follows: —“ The nidification of Totanus ochropus is so remarkable that I do not fear 
to trouble you with the history the Forester Hintz” (whom I have mentioned above) 
“has given me. He writes,— This year I succeeded in finding the nest of Totanus 
ochropus. On the 9th of May I took four eggs of this bird; they were found in an old — 
nest of Turdus musicus, and seemed to have been napbancl about three days. The 
very same day there were brought to me four other eggs of this bird, also found in a 
thrush’s nest. * * * The 10th of May there was shown to me a nest, thirty feet 
high, on an old birch, the bird having chosen an old decayed nest of a squirrel. This 
nest was the highest I have ever seen. Three young ones had just been hatched; in 
the fourth egg the bird was about to break the shell. One jumped down and concealed 
itself on the edge of a water-pool. The 11th of May a nest with four fresh eggs was 
found, but they did not come into my hands; this was in an old Pigeon’s nest ona 
Pinus rubra, and full of dry pine-leaves. The 20th of May two eggs, almost burst by 
the young, were found in an old thrush’s nest, the two missing birds having most 
likely already left the nest. The 22nd of May four young ones, apparently but 
a few hours old, were found im the old nest of a Lanius collurio, in a juniper 
three feet high. The 24th of May four young ones were found in the hole of a 
Populus tremula thrown down by the wind, The year before Muscicapa luctuosa had 
its nest in the trunk as it lay on the ground; this year Totanus ochropus had chosen 
the same opening. When I approached the trunk, the young ones, perhaps four-and- 
twenty hours old, jumped away and hid themselves in the grass among the branches. 
All these nests were near the water,—two on the edge of a rivulet, the others on wet 
morasses, the distance from the water being at most six feet.” I have the pleasure of 
exhibiting to you a small series of a score of the eggs of this bird, as well as three 
nests. The latter were sent me by Mr. H. W. Wheelwright, and were obtained by 
him this year in Sweden. They are so ragged and dilapidated that, as is often the 
ease with ancient ruins, it is not easy to say of what race the builders were. From one 
of them, five-and-twenty feet up in a fir tree, the mother was killed on the 28th of 
May, and I produce her skin. Three of the sets of eggs belonged to these nests; a 
fourth set was the contents of Forester Hintz’s nest of the 9th of May, 1861, men- 
tioned in his interesting letter. This I owe to Mr. Theobald and some other friends 
