147 



THE COMMON SANDPIPER. 



Totantis hi/poleucvs (L.). 



This species arrived along the whole of the south coast, but 

 chiefly on the west, those that arrived on the eastern half 

 being probably passage-migrants. 



A Common Sandpiper was shot in Co. Cyork in January, 

 and it seems not improbable that some of the earlier records 

 {e.g., Shropshire and Yorkshire on the 11th and 12th of 

 March) may have been due to the early passage northwards 

 of birds that had passed the winter in the south-west or in 

 Ireland. 



The earliest arrivals seem to have taken place during the 

 last three days of March and during the first week of April ; 

 considerable numbers seen in Somersetshire on the 7th, 

 had passed on by the following day. The bulk of our 

 summer-residents made their appearance about the middle 

 of the month and during the last week, but the dates of 

 their arrival were not clearly indicated by the records. 

 Little more can be said than that there was evidence of a 

 considerable amount of migration through the western half 

 of the country between the 18th and 23rd and from the 27th 

 to the 29th. Further immigrations seem to have landed 

 during the first week in May and movements were in pro- 

 gress until nearly the end of the second week, but these were 

 even less clearly reported than those which occurred in April. 



Common Sandpipers were described as already nesting in 

 Radnor on the 30th of April and in Renfrew on the 9th of 

 May. Nests with eggs were found in Northumberland on 

 the 7th of May, in Derby on the 13th, in Yorkshire on the 

 15th, in Perth on the 23rd, in Lancashire on the 26th, and in 

 Westmoreland on the 27th. 



