“I have now to read to yon a portion of a letter, dated November 27, 1861, which I received from my 
friend Pastor Theobald, of Copenhagen. He says as follows : — 
“‘The nidification of Totanm ochropiis is so remarkable that I do not fear to trouble you with the 
history the Forester Hintz has given me. He writes : — “ This year I succeeded in finding the nest of 
Totanm ochropus. On the 9th of May I took four eggs of this bird; they were found in an old nest 
of Turdus mmkus, and seemed to have been incubated about three days. The very same day there 
were brought to me four other eggs of this bird, also found in a Thrush’s nest. The 10th of May 
there was shown to me a nest, thirty feet high, on an old birch, the bird having chosen an old decayed 
nest of a Squirrel. This nest was the highest I have ever seen. Three young ones had just been hatched; 
in the fourth egg the bird was about to break the shell. One jumped down and concealed itself on the 
edge of a water-pool. The 11th of May a nest with four fresh eggs was found, but they did not come into 
my hands ; this was in an old Pigeon’s nest on a Pinas rubra, and full of dry pine-leaves. The 20th of 
May two eggs, almost burst by the young, were found in an old Thrush’s nest, the two missing birds 
having most likely already left the nest. The 22nd of May four young ones, apparently but a few hours 
old, were found in the old nest of a Lanius collurio, in a juniper three feet high. The 24th of May four 
young ones were found in the hole of a Popidus tremula thrown down by the wind. The year before, 
Miiscicapa luctuosa had its nest in the trunk as it lay on the ground ; this year Tota 7 ius ochropus had chosen 
the same opening. When I approached the trunk, the young ones, perhaps four-and-twenty hours old, 
jumped away and hid themselves in the grass among the branches. All these nests were near the water, — 
two on the edge of a rivulet, the others on wet morasses, the distance from the water being at most 
six feet.” ’ ” 
It will also be seen from Mr. Newton’s paper, that this bird breeds in Sweden, as it doubtless does in 
Russia and all similar latitudes of the Old World. The eggs are generally four in number, of a very 
pointed form, and of an olivaceous stone-colour, thickly spotted all over with ochreous brown ; they are 
about an inch and a half in length by an inch and an eighth in breadth. 
The sexes are very similar both in size and colouring ; and the young very soon acquire the adult livery, 
hut continue for some time more numerously spotted than the adults. I am indebted to Mr. I. Edmund 
Harting for a very fine example of this bird, killed by him at Kingsbury, in Middlesex, on the 5th of 
November 1864, and for the following note which accompanied it : — “ The Green Sandpiper is always the last 
to leave us ; but I have hitherto considered it unusual to meet with it after September; this year, however, 
I have observed it frequently throughout October, and now as late as the early part of November. On the 
22nd of December, 1863, several were observed along the feeder of our reservoir; but I thought this an 
exceptional case. In the spring, the Green Sandpiper comes to us about the 25th of April, and, after 
remaining until the middle or third week of May, leaves for six weeks, and appears again early in July. 
It seems strange that this species is not found breeding in England, considering that it spends so great a 
portion of the year therein.” 
I am also indebted to the Duke of Argyll for an opportunity of examining a very fine specimen shot by 
his Grace, in the spring of 1859, at Chenies, in Buckinghamshire, which, he observes, “ does not seem a 
suitable locality for such a bird. The plumage is remarkably beautiful ; the white of the lower parts, with 
the upper and under tail-coverts, is of the most spotless purity.” 
In further confirmation of the above statement respecting the breeding-habit of the Green Sandpipei*, 
I may quote the following passage by Mr. Wheelwright from ‘The Field’ of March 22, 1862: — “In no 
one work on natural history, British or foreign, have I ever seen it noticed that this bird lays its eggs in an 
old deserted nest, every one stating that the nest of this species is either in sand, or on a bank, or among 
the grass by the side of a stream. Yet in Sweden, where the bird is comparatively common, so much so 
that I generally procure five or six sets of eggs every year, I have never by any chance found them 
anywhere else than in an old nest in a fir tree.” 
Although from the above evidence there is no reason to doubt the fact of this species laying its eggs in 
the old nests of other birds, squirrels’ dreys, &c., and in bunches of moss on the branches of trees, it is 
probable that it also sometimes incubates on the ground, like the other members of its family. 
The Plate represents the Green Sandpiper, of the size of life, with its four eggs in a nest which may 
liave been a pigeon’s, on a branch of the common Pine. 
