AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 89 



banks of a somewhat secluded cattle-pond Avith old 

 pollard willows growing around it, and a coppice of 

 ash and oak, in which there was a small rookery 

 which still exists, within a very short distance ; and 

 my belief now is that these birds had eggs either in 

 an old nest in this coppice, or perhaps, more probably, 

 in the crown of one of the pollards ; but, I may ask, 

 what English birds'-nesting boy in the early eigh teen- 

 forties would have thought of looking for Sand- 

 piper's eggs in a tree % The Green Sandpiper is, in 

 my experience, a very wary bird, and a very great 

 nuisance to the Snipe-shooter, as rising wildly, it 

 darts up into the air, with a shrill trisyllabic whistle, 

 which puts all the Snipes within hearing on the 

 alert ; in common with most of our waders, however, 

 it soon becomes reconciled to captivity, and feeds 

 readily upon small worms and chopped meat ; it is a 

 good swimmer, but I have never seen one of this 

 species attempt to dive as the Common Sandpiper 

 often does when wounded and fallen into water and 

 chased by a dog. Various authors have mentioned 

 the unpleasant musky smell of the Green Sand- 

 piper, which I have sometimes, but not always, 

 observed; the dried skin occasionally retains this 

 odour for a considerable time. 



156. WOOD SANDPIPER. 



Totanvs glareola. 



This bird is an irregular summer visitor to England 

 and Scotland, seldom recorded as occurring at any 

 very considerable distance from the sea-shore in our 

 country, but very probably more common than is 

 generally supposed, as in habits and appearance it 



