COMMON SANDPIPER. 
333 
GRA LLA TORES. 
SCO LOP A CIDJE. 
COMMON SANDPIPER, 
SAND LARK. 
Totanus HYPOLEUCOS. 
PLATE XC. FIG. II. 
The Common Sandpiper frequents almost every river, 
skimming over tlie surface and uttering its sweet, melan¬ 
choly whistle. It lays its eggs either amongst the large 
dockens that grow upon the banks, or upon the beds of 
gravel by the margins of the stream. In the former situ¬ 
ation, where there is apparently less need, it makes a 
slight nest by collecting a little dry grass, and placing 
it in a hole scratched for that purpose; in the latter 
none; contenting itself by placing its eggs in a slight 
depression amongst the gravel. Here it is, however, 
by no means easy to discover them, placed as they are 
amongst the small pebbles; and here instinct has taught 
the birds that a collection of grass, where none grows, 
would only lead to the detection of their eggs. I have 
found them upon the bare, flat rock, where nothing but 
a very slight inequality in the surface kept them in 
their places. 
The Common Sandpiper breeds about the middle of 
May, and lays its four large eggs, admirably adapted, 
as I have before mentioned, when speaking of the eggs 
of the waders, both by their form and position in the 
nest, so as to occupy the least space possible, and be 
