8B THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



whistle three or four times repeated, but it is 

 naturally fearless of man, and I have often passed 

 a bird or two almost within oar's length of our boat 

 without their taking any notice of us as they ran 

 picking about the gravel banks with constant motion 

 of the tail and bowings of the head. I have found 

 this little bird at various times of year in all parts of 

 Europe that I have visited ; in the often quoted 

 4th edition of Yarrell I find it stated that " it is in 

 fact distributed over the whole of the Old World." 

 This is one of the few common British birds that I 

 have never been able to obtain alive, but I should 

 think that in an aviary with a constant supply of 

 running water, and plenty of fine gravel, it would be 

 likely to thrive. 



155. GREEN SANDPIPER. 



Totanns ochrojms. 



A few of these birds appear pretty regularly at 

 certain ponds in the neighbourhood of Lilford in 

 July and August, and whether some of these early 

 arrivals remain with us or pass on, giving place to 

 other individuals, I cannot say, but I have certainly 

 met with the Green Sandpiper in our district in 

 every month of the year except June, and, indeed, 

 do not feel quite positive about the correctness of 

 this exception, as in my years of boyhood I kept no 

 notes or diary of observations in ornithology. I do 

 not remember to have ever seen more than two of 

 this species together in Northamptonshire except on 

 one occasion, when I put up six at once from a 

 muddy spot on the bank of the Nen between 

 Lilford and Oundle ; this was on August 23rd, 1880. 



