278 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
from its winter haunts, and I saw the species still in flocks in 
the Hansag Marshes in Hungary towards the end of May. 
They arrive still later in their northern haunts, and are not seen 
in their Arctic breeding-grounds till early in June. Mr. Seebohm 
.^vrite3 • “ I first made the acquaintance of this most interest- 
in'^ bird on the fjelds of I.apland, near the Varanger Fjord in 
1874 ; but in the following year I had much better opportuni- 
ties of watching its habits in the valley of the Petchora. On 
their first arrival, the birds were absurdly tame, allowing us to 
approach within a few yards of them as they frequented the 
pools formed by the rapidly-melting snow in the streets of the 
town of Ust Zylma. A week later we found them at Haberiki, 
thirty miles further noith. They were feeding on the edges 
of the mar-shes and the little forest-tarns; and after we had shot 
one from the summit of a dead larch-tree, between sixty and 
seventy feet from the ground, we became more reconciled to the 
name of fkW-Sandpiper. They were excessively tame, and 
were in full song. The note which the male utters during 
the pairing-season is much more of a song than that of the 
Grasshopper- Warbler, which it somehow resembles , it is a 
monotonous ttl-il-ilf begun somewhat low and slow, as the bird 
is descending in the air, with fluttering upraised wings, becom- 
ing louder and more rapid, and reaching its climax as the bird 
alights on the ground, or on a rail, or sometimes on the bare 
branch of a willow, the points of its trembling wings almost 
meeting over its head, when its feet find support. This song 
is a by no means unmusical trill, and has an almost metallic ring 
about it. The alarm-note of the WoodrSandpiper js somewhat 
like the tyii-tyii of the Red-shank, but much softer.” The food 
of the species consists of worms, insects and their larvse, and 
small molluscs. 
Nest. — According to Mr. Seebohm, the nest of the Wood- 
Tattler is exceedingly difficult to find ; it is generally discovered 
by accident, in consequence of the female, who is a somewhat 
close sitter, flying off, and thus revealing the place where her 
eggs are concealed. This is generally in open country, not 
absolutely on swampy ground, but not very far from it ; a 
patch of dry ground, overgrown with heath, sedges, and coarse 
grasses, is generally selected, frequently not far from a few 
stunted willow-bushes, on which the bird frequently alights. 
