OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 257 



Habits. — Of the habits of the Broad-billed Sandpiper dnring 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 some- 

 times 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 Eichard Dann re- 

 marked 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 Eichard Dann to Yarrell, and by John Wolley 

 to Hewitson, by whom they were publised. 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 Dovrefjeld, 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 the 24th of June, 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 bogmoss 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 Dovrefjeld, contained eggs during the latter half of May. These nests were 

 in open parts of the marshes, and were made more elaborately than is usual 

 amongst this order of birds, the hollow being deeper and more carefully lined. 

 He also remarked that the lining in each nest resembled the colour of the eggs it 

 contained, the darker varieties being laid on withered leaves of the willow, the paler 

 ones on dry grass. The eggs are four in number, buffish-white in ground-colour, 

 densely mottled and spotted with rich chocolate-brown and paler brown, and with 

 underlying markings of grey. They are pyriform in shape, and measure on an 

 average 1'3 inch in length by '9 inch in breadth. Both birds assist in the task of 

 incubation, and one brood only is reared in the year. As soon as the young are 

 reared the broods and their parents form into small flocks. 



Diagnostic characters. — Tringa, with the bill very flat and wide, and 

 more than a fourth of the length of the wing, and with little or no white on 

 the secondaries and upper tail coverts. Length, 6| inches. 

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