240 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



has been so seldom met with in the county. Mr. R. Gray, 

 in his ' Birds of the West of Scotland/ p. 297, states that 

 on the banks of the Clyde he has even seen the bird making 

 its nest in flower-pots, under bushes, and among growing 

 plants, frequently in turnip fields. It is very cheerful and 

 lively, generally running from stone to stone very rapidly, 

 perching on one of them, and wagging its tail up and down, 

 uttering the while a few soft piping notes, which it also does 

 while on the wing. I once found the nest by the edge of 

 Bala Lake in N. Wales, constructed of little pieces of some 

 dead water-plant, a quantity of which had drifted along the 

 margin of the lake. The stomachs of several which I shot 

 on the banks of the Adur were filled with minute freshwater 

 shrimps, and small univalve moUusks, chiefly Turbo ulvce. 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



Totanus macularius. 



Op the occurrence of this American species in England there 

 are but few instances recorded. Of these two were shot in 

 Sussex, near Eastbourne. At the request of Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, I went there and ascertained from Mr. Bates, 

 naturalist, that they had been shot at the Crambles pond, 

 near that town, in October 1866. One of them was pur- 

 chased by Mr. Gurney, and the other Mr. Bates retained, 

 declining to let me have it. The habits of this species are 

 said to be so similar to those of the Common Sandpiper that 

 the description of that species will equally apply to this. 



