606 COMMON SANDPIPER. 
mountain barrier at an elevation of 17,000 ft. and breeds even in 
the Himalayas ; its winter-range extending over the Indian, Malayan 
and Australian regions, down to Tasmania. 
The nest, which is often a tolerably firm structure of grass, dry 
leaves, bits of rush &c., is either placed on banks more or less in the 
vicinity of tresh water, or on the shingle of some islet ; but some- 
times on the bare rock, and exceptionally in a pollard-willow 
(H. S. Davenport). ‘The eggs, 4 in number, are usually reddish-buff, 
rather minutely spotted with two shades of brown, but occasionally 
the ground-colour is pale bluish: measurements 1°45 by 1 in. 
Incubation commences by the middle of May, but fresh eggs may 
be found nearly a month later; while every stratagem is used by the 
female to divert attention from her nest or young, though the latter 
can run as soon as they are hatched and show great aptitude in 
concealing themselves. When on the ground, this bird is in con- 
stant motion, flirting the tail up and down, or extending and with- 
drawing the head and neck; it often alights on fences and bushes, 
and swims and dives well. In spring it rises in the air, trilling a 
pleasing song, but the usual note is a piping wheet, wheet, wheet. 
The food consists of worms, insects and their larvze. 
The adult male in summer has the upper parts of a bronzy-brown, 
minutely flecked and barred with umber; the three outer pairs of 
tail-feathers broadly tipped with white and barred with black, the 
rest chiefly bronzy-brown ; the chin white; sides of the neck and 
breast pale ash with dusky streaks ; under-parts white. Length 8 in, 
(bill r in.), wing 4°25 in. The female is a trifle larger. After the 
autumn moult the upper parts are more uniform in colour. The 
young have the upper feathers margined with buff, and no dark 
streaks down the middle of the throat. ; 
The American Spotted Sandpiper, Z. macularius, was allowed to 
retain its place as a British bird in the 4th Ed. of ‘ Yarrell,’ because, 
among the numerous recorded instances of its occurrence, there 
were two which could not with certainty be attributed to igno- 
rance or deliberate fraud ; but I think that the species has no claim 
to be considered as one of our visitors. Credulous collectors of 
“ British-killed ” specimens will do well to read the investigations of 
Mr. J. H. Gurney in his ‘Rambles of a Naturalist,’ p. 255, and in 
‘The Naturalist,’ 1895, p. 311, or the exposure of a dealer’s tricks in 
Adamson’s ‘Some more Scraps about Birds,’ p. 256. The American 
bird has a// the secondaries broadly barred with ash-brown, while in 
the Common Sandpiper the 8th and gth are nearly white. 
