COMMON SANDPIPER. 
TO TAN us IIYPOLEUCUS. 
The Common Sandpiper is a spring and autumn migrant, arriving on our southern coasts about the end 
of the second week in April, and, after rearing its young in many parts of the country, leaving our 
inhospitable shores to seek a warmer climate before the frosts of autumn and early winter have set in. 
In Sussex these birds may be observed (in spring for the most part singly) about the pools of brackish 
water in the vicinity of the sea-beach. After a few days’ halt they gradually make their way inland, 
usually following the course of the rivers, and so on through the country to their summer-haunts. Stragglers 
and late arrivals may be seen for a month or five weeks later, but no instance of the species remaining to nest 
in the county has come under my notice. I am aware that the fact of this Sandpiper having bred in 
Sussex is recorded on what ought to be good authority. The banks of the rivers and streams in this 
part of the country are scarcely suitable to the requirements of the species, and possibly (as I judge from 
eggs that have been shown as undoubted specimens) mistakes, in some instances at least, may have 
occurred. In Norfolk this attractive bird makes its appearance at much the same date as in the southern 
counties, frequenting during its short stay in the district the shades and moist portions of the hills round 
the broads, or the edges of the drains that run through the saltwater mudflats. 
By the lakes in Cumberland and the winding streams of some of the adjoining counties I have seen 
this Sandpiper in June; and it is probable that it passes the summer there, though, not needing specimens 
of eggs or young, no search was made for the nests. Along the shores of the Tay these birds usually 
take up their quarters early in May, and from this point to the extreme north of Sutherland and Caithness 
I met with them in almost every suitable locality. 
On one occasion four young birds in the down, evidently but lately hatched, were detected a few 
yards above high-water mark on the shores of a sandy creek in Gairloch, on the west coast of Boss-shire. 
The spot was flat and open, similar in every respect to the usual haunts of the Ringed Plover, several 
of which species were breeding close at hand. That the Sandpiper should have chosen a situation for 
nesting so devoid of cover is most improbable, and I conclude that the tiny mites, notwithstanding their 
apparent w'ant of strength, had succeeded in making their way down the course of a rocky burn from 
the adjoining moorland. Where Sandpipers take up their summer-quarters in w^ooded localities they 
may frequently be seen sitting (at times at a considerable height) in the surrounding timber. Numbers 
are to be met with in various parts along the canal between Inverness and Dochfour, near the head of 
Loch Ness. When put up from their feeding-grounds, I repeatedly watched them alight on the limbs of 
Scotch firs or other large forest trees and run rapidly along the branches jerking their tails. 
I was informed by the keepers at Pitnacree and other shootings along Strath Tay (where these 
Sandpipers are especially numerous during the breeding-season) that great difficulty was experienced 
in keeping open the traps set for Crows about the pools near the river-side. The unfortunate birds 
