WOOD SANDPIPER. 
331 
especially if a dog is with you, the old birds will fly 
round in the most anxious manner, and will hover over 
the dog within a few feet; then, suddenly darting off, 
mount high into the air, pouncing down again with 
great rapidity on the intruder. If you have observed 
the actions and manoeuvres of the redshank during the 
breeding season, you will have seen very much the habits 
of the Wood Sandpiper. 
“It is far from being numerous in the localities where I 
met with it, yet many pairs are dispersed over these dis¬ 
tricts, where they have long been known to breed, from 
information which I obtained from several intelligent 
sportsmen, to whom the bird was well known. Although 
I met with the young in the downy state, and partially 
feathered, I only obtained one nest with eggs. 
“ The nest is generally placed at a short distance from 
the water among stunted heath, or scrubby plants of 
the bog-myrtle, or among coarse grass and rushes. It 
is placed in a hollow, and is of dry grass and other 
plants. The eggs are four in number." 
Mr. Wolley, writing from Lapland, says :—“The Wood 
Sandpiper breeds in both great and small marshes, and 
in wet places, even on the slope of a hill, as happened 
this spring within a hundred yards of where I am now 
writing, in a place where we were often passing. Look¬ 
ing out of my window almost any time in the summer, 
I could see several of these birds standing on the top of 
stakes, and perhaps hear them crying leero, leero, or ut¬ 
tering their notes of alarm. It is beautiful to see the 
Wood Sandpiper playing in the air early in the spring. 
It rises to a good height, and then suddenly steadying 
its wings and keeping them open, it glides gently up¬ 
wards for a short distance, and down again on the other 
side of the little arch it so forms upon the former line 
