GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 273 



Time during which the Broad-billed Sandpiper may 

 he taken. — August ist to March ist. 



Habits. — Of the habits of the Broad-billed Sandpiper during 

 winter but little has been recorded. It is found during that 

 season either in flocks of varying size, roaming about alone, or 

 mingling with Dunlins and other small Sandpipers. It frequents 

 the coasts, preferring those that are muddy, but sometimes 

 haunts the sands. It runs about in the usual quick, restless 

 manner of its kind, and in its flight is said to resemble the 

 Dunlin. Its note in winter is apparently undescribed, but during 

 the breeding season the late Richard Dann remarked that its cry 

 when disturbed was a rapid too-woo, uttered whilst the bird rose 

 and fell in the air like a Snipe. The food of the Broad-billed 

 Sandpiper is composed of crustaceans, small worms, insects and 

 their larvae, and probably ground fruits. 



Nidification. — Admirable descriptions of the breeding 

 habits of the Broad-billed Sandpiper were furnished by Richard 

 Dann to Yarrell, and by John Wolley to Hewitson, by whom 

 they were published. The former naturalist met with this bird 

 breeding in small colonies in the grassy morasses and swamps at 

 the head of the Bothnian Gulf, and in the swamps of the Dovre- 

 fjeld, three thousand feet above sea-level. It arrived at its 

 breeding stations about the end of May, being very wild and wary 

 just after its return, and feeding on the banks of the pools and 

 lakes. Later in the season it became more skulking in its habits, 

 creeping through the long grass, and when flushed dropping 

 again almost at once. It began laying about June 24th, and 

 the young were still unable to fly a month later. The nest 

 resembled that of a Snipe, and was made in a tuft of grass. 

 Wolley remarked that its favourite nesting places were soft open 

 spots in the marshes, where the ground was clothed with bog- 

 moss and sedge, and the nests were often placed on grass tufts 

 just above the water. He found that the eggs were laid about 

 the third week in June ; and that the nests were rounded 

 hollows lined with a little dry grass. The sitting bird was 

 observed not only to run from the eggs but to fly from her nest, 

 and when incubation was far advanced she became very tame 

 and confiding. Other nests, observed by Mr. Mitchell on the 



