2818 Birds. 



beds of pebbles, or the muddy parts of the shore. As it flits along 

 the margin of the river, in a semicircular manner, and uttering at the 

 same time its peculiar low, pleasing whistle, it forms a very pretty ad- 

 dition to the numerous animated beings that enliven the waters. It is 

 difficult to ascertain upon what food they subsist. When alighting 

 from their short flight, they always settle under the bank close to the 

 water's-edge ; and if approached unperceived, may be seen thrusting 

 their bills into the mud in a curious manner, like the snipe, yet if the 

 holes they have been boring are dug out, neither worm nor insect can 

 be distinguished. Whether or no this bird ever breeds here, it is dif- 

 ficult to say, but I feel confident that it does, although after consider- 

 able search through numerous years / have never found an egg, nor 

 can I hear of any other person who has ever obtained eggs. But 

 why should the bird come here year by year and stay during the 

 breeding-season, unless its object is to nest ? I have also a bird 

 in my possession, shot whilst carrying a piece of moss in its bill, 

 which probably was being carried to the nest, as it occurred on the 

 8th of May. On the 25th of May, 1845, I observed a sandpiper fly 

 out of a hole by the Trent and found a nest (but no eggs) ; and 

 on August 2nd, 1843, and August 11th, 1845, I observed parties 

 of young sandpipers playing about the eel-beds on the river, in com- 

 pany with their parents. These circumstances seem to warrant the 

 conclusion, that a number of young birds are reared here annually. 

 Sandpipers may occasionally be seen running nimbly along the 

 turf by the margin of the Trent (like the peewit), or standing 

 stretching themselves and ruffling their plumage, in a very particular 

 manner. These birds appear from the 7th to the 18th of April, and 

 usually depart about the middle of September, but I observed one so 

 late as October 10th, in 1849. 



Black-tailed Godwit {Limosa tegocephala) . A solitary individual 

 has been shot occasionally on Sinfin Moor, a tract of country which, 

 before it was drained, was a very favourite haunt. They were 

 accounted a choice dish for the table. 



Bar-tailed Godwit {Limosa Lapponica). One, in its winter plu- 

 mage, was shot in the meadows near Swarkeston, about six years ago. 



Woodcock [Scolopax rusticola). A few brace of woodcocks visit 

 us most winters, arriving generally about October 6th ; but on one oc- 

 casion a woodcock was killed here so early as the 1st of September. 

 In 1844, two brace and a half were killed about the woods on the com- 

 mon ; a pair of them during the third week in September. They 

 usually depart towards the end of February, but I remember that 



