GHEEN SANDPIPER. 85 



meiitioried as deficending frbm Chipping Norton to join the 

 iEvenlode, This brbok is dammed up just belo* to supply an old 

 flour-mill, and has been so used for centuries ; its bed is therefore 

 *en lined with mud, and when the WaAer is let out, which often 

 happens (for the mill is on its last legs, and supports itself by aid 

 of a beer-Hcense which is the plague of the village), this mud 

 appears in little banks under the eheMng rat-riddled lip of tlie 

 meadow. Here is a chance for some of the more unusual birds, 

 as- every ornithologist would say if h^ saw the stream ; but both 

 water and mud are often thick with the dye from the Chipping 

 Norton tweed-mill, and no trout will live below the pcant at 

 which th« poisoned w&iter comes in. Strange to say, the poisoning 

 does not seem to affect the birds; Two pairs of Grey Wagtails, 

 w'Mch I seldom see in the Evemlbde, passed a happy time here 

 froffi- July t(S December last year, preferring some turn of the 

 brook where the water broke over a few stones or a miniature 

 weir; and through Attgflst and September they were joined 

 by several Green Sandpipers. These beautiftd birdsj whose 

 departure I always regret, are on their way from their breeding- 

 places in the North to some winter residence ; they stay only a 

 few weeks in EnglaMd, and little is known about them. Many 

 a time have 1 stalkeid them, looking far along the Stream with a 

 powerful glass in hopes of dateMag them at work with their long 

 bills ; each effort comes to the same provoking conclusion, the 

 bird suddenly shooting up from beneath your feet jg'ust at a place 

 which you fancied you had most carefully scanned. When they 

 first arrive they will fly only to a short distance, and the bright 

 white of their upper tail-feathers enables you to mark them 



