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against such a mishap. The fact of these Sandpipers transferring their nursery to the fields on 

 the other side of the embankment, and persistently remaining in their new quarters, shows that 

 the same pairs frequented the river on their return to this country, and had a wise recollection 

 of their bygone misfortunes." Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown says, in Sutherlandshire this bird is 

 *' exceedingly abundant, and generally found on the lochs which lie at no great altitude, or on 

 the banks of small burns. It arrives in Sutherland, as nearly as I can ascertain, in the last 

 week of April, which is a little later than in more southern counties. Upon the summit of Ben 

 Chaorin, which is about 2700 feet above the sea, in two successive seasons I have met with one 

 pair of these birds, evidently breeding. This, however, is the only instance I know of its being 

 found at such an altitude in this country, though I understand it is occasionally met with at an 

 even higher elevation in one or two localities in Scotland. I have found the nest of this species 

 sometimes protected above by a projecting rock or boulder; but it is generally placed on the 

 open ground amongst grass. It breeds on the islands and shores of both inland and sea-lochs." 

 Messrs. Baikie and Heddle speak of it merely as an occasional visitor to Orkney ; but Dr. Saxby 

 says that it has been found breeding in Shetland. Mr. Edmondston, in error, recorded it as a 

 winter visitant to these islands, but afterwards corrected himself. It is stated by Thompson to 

 be generally distributed in Ireland, but does not appear to occur in Greenland or Iceland. In 

 Scandinavia it is common. Mr. Collett informs me that it is generally distributed on the rivers 

 and lakes of Norway, but is always in small numbers in the vicinity of the salt water. On the 

 fells it is commonly distributed up to the snow-region. Nilsson says that it is the commonest 

 Sandpiper in Sweden, and is found from the south of Skane up to the north of Lapland, and on 

 the sides of the fells as high as the woods and bush-growth extends. It arrives in Sweden in 

 April, and leaves in September. 



According to Dr. Palmen (Finl. Fogl. ii. p. 166) there is scarcely any portion of Finland 

 where it is not tolerably common, from the extreme south up to the Arctic Ocean, and eastward 

 to Onega. Only Von Middendorff states expressly that he never saw it when travelling in the 

 Lapland peninsula; nor did Lilljeborg record it from Schuretskaja. On the south coast it is 

 scarcely found on the outer fringe of islands. Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown state that they 

 first met with it at Suja, on the Dwina, and afterwards in great numbers on the banks of the 

 Ijma river, where it was more numerous than the Terek Sandpiper, yet they never once met with 

 it on the islands in the delta of the Dwina. It is, they add, a common species, but is very locally 

 distributed. Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown record it (Ibis, 1876, p. 292) as being far from 

 abundant on the Petchora, as far as they had opportunities of judging, and they only saw or 

 obtained examples of it upon the stretch of the river between Habariki and the Yorsa river. 

 Sabanaeff informs me that it is very common throughout the whole of Central Russia, and he 

 met with it numerous in the Ural, where, he says, it breeds along the rivers on the eastern 

 slope in the Pavda district. Throughout North Germany it is very generally distributed, and 

 common during the summer season ; and Mr. J. Collin says that it arrives in Denmark in April 

 or May, and leaves in September or October. A few remain to breed ; and it is tolerably common 

 during the autumnal passage. In the Duchies it is common both in the interior and on the coast. 

 In Holland it is stated to be common in the summer season ; and it arrives in Belgium in April, 

 breeds on some of the islands of the Meuse, and leaves late in the summer, at which season it is 



