532 ON THE BREEDING OF THE GREEN SANDPIPER. [DcC. 8. 



nest in the trunk as it lay on the ground ; this year Totanus ochro- 

 pus 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 case 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, 

 mentioned in his interesting letter. This I owe to Mr. Theobald and 

 some other friends in Copenhagen. The remaining four eggs are odd 

 ones obtained by Mr. WoUey and myself from Dr. Kjserbolling, 



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