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eggs, 2nd June four fresh eggs, all in old Thrush's nests. In 1860, on 10th May four eggs 

 three-quarters incubated. In 1861, 9th May four fresh eggs and four half-incubated eggs, one 

 of which was almost white with only a few black spots on the larger end ; on the 10th May 

 three young and the fourth egg very nearly hatched, in an old squirrel's nest on a birch (this was 

 the highest-situated nest I ever took, being about 30 feet from the ground ; the young jumped 

 down from the nest without hurting themselves, and hid themselves in the grass) ; on the 11th 

 May four fresh eggs in an old Pigeon's nest, which was full of old conifer-spines and was built on 

 a pine ; on the 20th May two eggs almost hatched, two young were already out of the nest; on 

 the 22nd four young in an old nest of Lanius collurio ; on the 24th May four freshly hatched 

 young in a broken-down Populus tremula. This tree had a hole at the broken place, and in the 

 preceding year Muscicapa luctuosa bred there ; out of this hole, which the bird had chosen for 

 its nest, the young birds, which had been hatched scarcely half an hour previously, jumped at 

 my approach and hid themselves in the grass. In 1862, on the 11th May, four fresh eggs in an 

 old Thrush's nest, the same in which I found the white egg in the preceding year ; on the 23rd 

 May two eggs more than half-hatched, and, strange to say, there were no more eggs in the nest ; 

 on the 26th May four eggs half-hatched: both clutches in old Thrush's nests. All the nests I 

 have found up to the present time were not more than three paces from the water ; and I have 

 found them as low as one foot, but usually from three to six feet high." The Kev. Herbert S. 

 Hawkins has placed at my disposal a letter from Mr. Hintz respecting the nidification of the 

 present species, from which I translate the following : — " The bird arrives here in pairs from the 

 beginning to the middle of April, and selects for the purpose of nidification wooded localities 

 close to ponds, from which it makes excursions to marshy lakes or rivers at some distance. It 

 usually deposits its eggs in old deserted nests of the Blackbird and Missel-Thrush ; but I have on 

 one occasion taken eggs out of a nest of the latter species which had been left by the young 

 Thrushes only six days previously. It also not unfrequently uses the same nest two years in 

 succession. I have found its eggs in old half-ruined nests of Woodpigeons, Jays, and even in 

 those of the squirrel, on the ground, on the moss, on old stumps with only a few leaves under 

 the eggs, and on one occasion on the branches of an old pine tree in a place where the spines 

 were heaped together, and once even in the hollow of an aspen tree where a Starling had 

 previously bred, the tree having fallen and the opening of the hole being upwards. Formerly I 

 used always to look for the nests of the Green Sandpiper low down, and usually found them 

 from 3 to 12 feet above the ground ; but of late years I have taken eggs as high up as 35 feet. 

 The bird always nests close to ponds where even in the summer there is some little water ; and 

 only on two occasions have I found the nest as far distant from the water as 20 to 30 paces. 

 As soon as the young are hatched they jump down to the ground. The present species breeds 

 early, often in the middle of April, usually in May, or, if the eggs are taken, in June, the second 

 lot of eggs being occasionally, though not often, deposited in the same nest." Borggreve states 

 that Mr. Hintz once found seven eggs of this species in an old Thrush's nest at Neustadt Ebers- 

 wald; and he surmises that two females must have laid in the same nest, which I think most 

 probable. I may add that Mr. Booth told me that he himself once took eight Greenshank's 

 eggs out of a nest in Sutherlandshire. 



The eggs of the Green Sandpiper, like those of its allies, are pear-shaped, and, as a rule, 



