The Zoologist — February, 1871. 2457 



one which I supposed to be the male, agaiu took wing, and dashing too and 

 fro, even more wildlj than before, and with redoubled clamour, seemed 

 desirous to attract all attention to itself, but whilst admiring the cleverness 

 of this little ruse, I took care to keep my glass fixed ujion its mate, and 

 soon had the satisfaction of seeing her run hastily to a thick grassy tuft, 

 and there with trembling wings caress her young ones. Marking the spot 

 exactly, I started from my post, but long before I reached it both birds 

 were again on the wing, now dashing over my head in the wildest excite- 

 ment, and loudly wailing as I stooped to search amongst the long coarse 

 grasses. There they were sure enough, three little downy things but a few 

 days old, though not in the nest, wliich I subsequently found at a short 

 distance, and even then, but for their bright, bead-like eyes I might have 

 passed them by unseen. After all my trouble, I could not help stopping a 

 few minutes longer to examine these beautiful little creatures in their soft 

 russet coats, barred on the backs and wings with two shades of brown, and 

 their legs as strangely disproportioued to their bodies as those of a foal in 

 its earliest stage. Then with something of regret, as I very much wanted 

 a specimen, I put the youngsters back into their tuft of grass, but was fully 

 repaid by witnessing, from my former vantage ground, the meeting between 

 oldandyoung."— P. 212. 



The recently-discovered life-history of the green sandpiper was 

 sure n attract the attention of such an ornithologist as Mr. 

 Stevenson, but notwithstanding his evident desire to contribute 

 from personal observation some additional scraps, he has been 

 unable to do so ; he therefore refers us back to the singular facts 

 which have already been made public. His account of this species 

 is, however, unusually complete and diffuse, yet borrowed from 

 other sources: the i"eaders of the 'Zoologist' have already had 

 these rather sensational details laid before them at p. 9115, where 

 it will be found that this eccentric sandpiper prefers to deposit its 

 eggs in the deserted nest of a missel thrush, song thrush, jay or 

 crow, entirely deserting the "banks of limpid streams" and such- 

 like scenery, where in garret natural history, she is bound to 

 educate her little ones. One new fact, or rather suggestion, is 

 given us as to the mode in which these juvenile waders descend 

 from their arboreal cradle : it is, however, nothing better than a 

 quotation from a quotation, and the authorities are a sporting 

 magazine and a gamekeeper, the first a questionable, the second a 

 more than questionable source for scientific information ; but there 

 is a simplicity in the course of the proceeding indicated that 

 commends it to our acceptance : the gamekeeper avers that he 



