214 SCOLOPACID^E. 



pond, and remain there for some days until they gather suffi- 

 cient strength to move onward. Towards the middle of July, they 

 appear at such localities (then only do they ever visit them), and 

 are sometimes very noisy, — the piping of the young and old 

 together producing quite a concert, though certainly more of a 

 shrill than sonorous kind. A relative, walking on the banks of 

 the Plush, a mountain rivulet amid the Belfast mountains, on 

 the 8th of July, met with eight sandpipers, chiefly young. One 

 of the party, doubtless a parent bird, flew after, and circled 

 several times around Mm and a setter-dog as they proceeded along 

 the banks of the stream. It afterwards followed the dog through 

 several fields, often flying angrily at his head and body, though 

 apparently without striking him. As the young birds could 

 all fly well, my friend was surprised at the pertinacity with which 

 the dog was pursued. About a fortnight afterwards these birds 

 had all left the locality. 



Stones are the common resting-places of this species ; but it 

 has frequently been observed to perch on ragweeds (Senecio 

 Jacobaa) growing in fields bordering its haunts, as well as on 

 shrubby and other plants contiguous to water. Its facility of 

 swimming and diving, respecting which many notes have been 

 supplied to me, is well known. A bird, wounded by a shooter in 

 Belfast Bay, having dived, he saw it run for a yard or more along 

 the bottom — where the water was about a foot and a half in depth 

 — as quickly as it could have done on dry land. Its neck was 

 stretched out, its breast close to the bottom, and its wings in full 

 use during its progress. I have myself seen the young, when un- 

 able to fly, take to the water for safety, and swim well. 



In the appendix to the l Letters of Rusticus of Godalming/ 

 Mr. J. D. Salmon remarks, that he does "not think this bird 

 breeds further south than Yorkshire" (p. 155). When meeting 

 with pairs at Ogwell Pool, North Wales (May 12), and on the 

 banks of the Learn, in Warwickshire (July 11), I imagined that 

 they were probably breeding in those localities, as they would 

 have been at similar places in Ireland ; in the south as well as the 

 north of which country they commonly nidify. 



