“ I have now to l-ead to you 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 o f Totanus ocbropus is so remarkable that I do not fear to trouble you with the
history the Forester Hintz has given me. He w r i t e s T h i s year I succeeded in finding the nest of
Totanus ocbropus. On the 9th o f May I took four eggs o f this bird; they were found in an old nest
o f Turdus musicus, and seemed to have been incubated about three days. The very same day there
were brought to me four other eggs o f this bird, also fonnd 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 ju st 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 Pirns rubra, and full of dry pine-Ieaves. The 20th of
May two eggs, almost hurst 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 Lomus col/urio, in a juniper three feet high. The 24th of May four
young ones were found in the hole of a Populus tremula thrown down by the wind. The year before,
Muscicapa luctuosa had its nest in the trunk as it lay on the ground; this year Totanus 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 o f a rivulet, the others on wet morasses, the distance from the water being a t most
six feet.” ’ i 'i g l
It will also be seen from Mr. Newton’s paper, that this bird breeds in Sweden, as it donbtless 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,
but continue for some time more numerously spotted than the adults. I am indebted to Mr. I. Edmund
Harting for a very fine example o f this bird, killed by him a t Kingsbury,in Middlesex, on the 5th of
November 1864, and for the following note which accompanied it S ’ The Green Sandpiper is always the last
to leave u s ; 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 p a rt o f November. On the
22nd o f December, 1863, several were observed along the feeder of onr reservoir; but I thought this an
exceptional case. In the spring, the Green Sandpiper comes to us about the 25th o f April, and, after
remaining until the middle or third week of May, leaves for six weeks, and appears again early in ’ July.
I t seems strange that this species is not found breeding in England, considering that it spends so great a
portion o f the year therein.”
I am also indebted to the Duke of Argyll for an opportunity o f 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 o f 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 o f the Green Sandpiper,
I may quote the following passage by Mr. Wheelwright from -The F ie ld ’ o f March 22, 1 8 6 2 --^ “ In no
one work on natufl* 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 o f this species is either in Sand, o r 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
t t I generally procure five or six sets o f eggs every year, I have never by any chance found them
anywhere else than m 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 o f moss on the branches o f trees, it is
probable that it also sometimes incubates on the ground, like the other members o f its family.
The Plate represents the Green Sandpiper, o f the size o f life, with its four eggs in a nest which may
nave been a pigeon s, on a branch of the common Pine. ■