COMMON SANDPIPER 225 
TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS (Linn. ). 
COMMON SANDPIPER. 
The Sandpiper may best be described as a bird of double 
passage, which makes a rather lengthened stay in the isle. 
The earliest date on which I have seen one is 19th April; 
by the beginning of May they are of general occurrence, but 
from the middle of that month to the end of June one is 
very rarely seen. Before the commencement of July, how- 
ever, the return movement has already set in, and during that 
month and August they are again common, but I have no 
note of one seen in September. It is singular, if correct, 
that the Sandpiper should not breed in the Isle of Man, 
whose streams seem so well adapted to its habits; it can 
scarcely be for lack of the necessary food, as it spends con- 
siderable time on our waters during migration. I have 
never seen a pair whose actions suggested nesting, nor does 
Mr. Kermode know of a case, and as above noted, it is 
rarely observed during the actual season when laying and 
incubation might be expected. 
_ On passage the Sandpiper is found along the lower and 
wider portions of our principal streams, as the Silverburn, 
the Glass, whose shingly and gorse-bordered margins above 
Douglas are an unfailing resort, and the Sulby, where 
Mr. Kermode says the ford near the head of the tide west 
of Ramsey is a favourite haunt. But the species is also 
extremely characteristic of a ‘burn-foot’ where there is a 
gravelly beach, as at Glenmay strand, Cass ny hawin in 
Santon, and Groudle. I have seen it on similar ground on 
the shore at Grainsh, near Ramsey (where there is no 
stream) ; but it is also found on the zone between high and 
low water mark at the base of our steepest sea-promontories, 
like Bradda, Contrary Head, and Stroin Vuigh, where it 
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