161 
COMMON SAKDPIPEK. 
being performed by a rapid motion of the pinions, succeeded 
by an interval of rest, the wings at the same time being 
considerably bent, and forming an angle with the body; and 
in this manner it skims with rapidity over the surface of 
the water, not always flying in a straight line, but making 
occasional sweeps, uttering at. the same time its shrill and 
well-known whistle.’ When settling down, the wings are at 
some seasons kept up stretched over the back, and in this 
position it runs along the sand, uttering the while its 
plaintive whistle. Sandpipers may at times be seen running 
along the grass by the river side, stretching themselves out, 
and ruffling their feathers in an odd sort of manner. 
They feed on worms and insects, such as flies, gnats, and 
water spiders, and on minute snails, but rarely. In search 
of some part of their food they thrust their bills into the 
mud. 
The note, a clear pipe, is, though pleasant to the ear, a 
mere ‘wheet, wheet, wheet,’ uttered when the bird is put up, 
as well as when perched on some stone, branch, or stake, 
near the water side. Meyer likens it to the syllables, 
‘heedeedee, heedeedee.’ It is repeated a great number of 
times—as many as forty or fifty—by the bird when on the 
wing. 
Nidification commences about the middle of April. 
The nest is slight—a collection of a few leaves or a little 
moss, dry grass or leaves, in a hollow in a bank, in a tuft 
of grass, or tussock of rushes; upon a bed of gravel, or 
even on a bare rock; the eggs being kept together by only 
a very slight inequality in the surface. It is generally thus 
sheltered or protected, on one side at least. It is usually 
built near the water’s edge, but sometimes in an adjoining 
field, always above the highest water-mark. It is well hidden 
in a tuft of grass or rushes, or among the lower branches 
of willows and osiers, so as to be difficult to find. The 
same pair, if undisturbed, will return for several successive 
seasons to their accustomed building-place. 
The eggs, four in number, are of a reddish white or cream 
yellow tint, spotted and speckled with dark brown, and other 
marks of a lighter hue. Some are of a clear very light blue 
ground colour, with minute brown spots all over; others 
with large blots of deep brown. They are, as the eggs of 
other waders, admirably adapted, both by their form and 
position in the nest, to occupy the smallest possible degree 
