114 A TRIP TO HABARIKI 



the fields, and bagged one of them. These were the 

 first examples we had yet seen of the species. 



We did not succeed in securing a common snipe, but 

 we often heard their peculiar tic-tuc note, and the sound 

 of their drumming high in the air. My companion 

 identified a snipe with his glass as belonging to this 

 species; it was uttering the characteristic note, and later, 

 when it dropped to the ground, it rose again with the 

 zigzag flight belonging to this bird. We were not a 

 little surprised the first time we saw a common snipe 

 perched upon the topmost upright twig of a bare larch 

 seventy feet above ground. We soon grew familiar to 

 the sight ; indeed, after what we witnessed of the 

 arboreal habits of birds we are not accustomed to see 

 perching in England, we ceased to feel surprise at the 

 circumstance. The origin of this habit is doubtless due 

 to the flooding of the great tracts of country by the 

 annual overflow of rivers at the time of migration. We 

 saw but one flock of Temminck's stint, feeding on the 

 marshy ground near one of the forest trees. We shot 

 them all, hoping to discover the Little stint amongst them, 

 but we were disappointed. 



We found the greenshank and dusky redshank 

 {Totanus fuscus) abundant, but did not succeed in 

 shooting an example of either species. 



Wood-sandpipers were common, frequenting the 

 edges of the marshes and the forest tarns. This bird, 

 like Temminck's stint, elevates its wings when alighting, 

 until they almost meet. There is a likeness also in the 

 song of the two birds. The note of the wood-sandpiper 

 is decidedly musical. We shot specimens from the 

 summit of high bare trees sixty-five feet at least from the 

 ground. 



We shot half a dozen Terek sandpipers, the first we 



