THE SANDPIPEll. 
215 
Sir Wm. Jardine, when writing his ^ History of British Birds/ 
was not aware, either on the authority of others or his own, 
that the sandpiper visited any of the Scottish islands.* In the 
^ Historia JSTaturalis Orcadensis,^ however, published in 1848, 
we have the statement that it ^Hias been observed in several 
islands, as in Sanday, in Hoy, and in various parts of the main- 
land [of Orkney] ” It is added that the bird appears to be only 
an occasional visitant to tliat group. When in Islay, in 1849, I 
was pleased to learn that the sandpiper breeds annually about the 
lakes of the island. On particularly questioning the gamekeeper 
respecting it and the dunlin, and showing him figures of the two 
species, he stated that the latter was unknown to him as breeding 
there ; but that a pair or two of the 1\ liypoleucos came every 
summer to each of the two small lakes on the moor above Ardi- 
mersy Cottage, and, he had no doubt, to the pther lakes of 
Islay also. 
Eggs of the bird, obtained there since the preceding was 
written (and kindly sent to me by Eobert Langtry, Esq.), have 
proved the correctness of my informant as to the species. 
Of aU our summer birds of passage, the sandpiper, so attractive 
from its beautifully bronzed plumage, lively motions, loud piping 
note, and graceful curving flight, is the most widely dispersed, 
and the least choice as to locality ; a mere sufficiency of water, 
in any form, being apparently the only essential to its presence. 
In the petty tarns situated amid the sublime scenery of our 
lofty mountains, as at Lough Salt, in Donegal ; on the low and 
extensive shores of our three greatest lakes, — Loughs Neagh, 
Erne, and Corrib, — around the richly-wooded and rocky shores 
of Killarney, as well as about lakes of every intermediate size 
and physical character, I have remarked this species. It is also 
found at the lofty source of our springs and brooks, — in the beds 
of rocky torrents and gently flowing streams, and along the banks 
of the largest rivers, until, in their gathered might, they move 
majestically to mingle with the ocean. Here again, on shores of 
* Vol. iii. p. 217. 
