90 THE BIEDS OF NORTHAMPTON SHIRE 



has a great resemblance to the Green Sandpiper, but 

 is smaller than that bird, and has a very distinct 

 alarm-note. Two Wood Sandpipers appeared on 

 the banks of a pond in our park at Lilford, "svithin 

 200 yards of the house, in the early part of August 

 1875, and I found them there occasionally from that 

 time till the middle of September; from constantly 

 seeing people about they became comparatively tame, 

 and towards the end of their stay with us, on being 

 disturbed, would fly round the pond two or three 

 times with a sharp double whistle, and alighting 

 again on the bank opposite to the spectator, ran 

 about the mud unconcernedly with constant motion 

 of their tails, picking and probing for food. The 

 Rev, H. H. Slater of Irchester Vicarage informed me 

 that he identified a partially plucked AVood Sand- 

 piper in the autumn of 1885 that had been shot a 

 short time previously at the spot where the Irchester 

 brook joins our main river ; my friend Lieut. -Col. 

 Irby told me that in July 1886 he saw a Sandpiper 

 on Wadenhoe mill-stream that was neither of the 

 Green or Common species, and therefore probably 

 one of the birds of which I am now treating ; these 

 instances are all that I find in my note-books as to 

 the Wood Sandpiper in Northamptonshire. There 

 is, I believe, only one authentic record of this bird 

 nesting in England, and fairly good evidence of its 

 having done so in Scotland ; on the continent it is 

 known to breed in all the northern countries of 

 Europe, and is to be met with at various seasons 

 virtually all over Asia and a great part of Africa. 

 I have met with the Wood Sandpiper in great 

 abundance in Andalucia, and in lesser numbers on 

 almost all parts of the Mediterranean shores that I 



