SANDPIPER. 247 



At this period of contention,* the fowlers are enabled to catch 

 them by means of nets, in great numbers.f They are decoyed also 

 into the nets by means of stale birds ; but in this case fewer are 

 taken. Tt is usual to fatten them for the table by bread and milk, 

 mixed with hempseed, with sometimes boiled wheat, and frequently 

 sugar is added ; by which means in a fortnight's time they will 

 become a lump of fat, and will fetch from two shillings to half a 

 crown each. 



The Reeve lays four eggs, in a tuft of grass, the beginning of 

 May; they are white, marked with large rusty spots; and the young 

 are hatched in about a month. It is not known for certain where 

 these birds pass the winter ; they are first seen early in spring, and 

 disappear the end of September ; yet we suspect that some at least 

 remain through the cold season, and may possibly pass unheeded 

 among the several others of this Genus, and the more so, as the male is 

 only distinguished by his ruff-like feathers during the breeding season, 

 losing this appendage in moulting, and does not recover it till the 

 return to the fens in spring. According to authors, the same man- 

 ners take place in respect to them in France, Holland, Flanders, 

 and other parts on the Continent, where they arrive, and disappear 

 at the same season as in England. 



2— SHORE SANDPIPER. 



Totanus ciuereus, Bris. v, 203. t. 17. f. 2. Id. Svo. ii. 265. Tern. Man. 410. Id. 



Ed. ii. 634. 

 Calidris ferruginea, Gerin. t. 469. 

 Chevalier varie, Buf. vii. 517. PL enl. 300. 

 Le Chorlito champetre, Voy. d'Azara, iv. No. 397 ? 

 Mr. Oldham's White Herou, Alb. iii. pi. 89. 



* When kept tame, if food is set before them, the males will as eagerly fight for that as 

 they before did for the possession of a female. 



f By placing a clap-net fourteen yards long, and four broad, over night, forty-four 

 have been caught at one pull, the morning following ; and in all six dozen in the course of 

 morning. One fowler has caught between forty and fifty dozen in one season.— Br. Zool. 



