COMMON SANDPIPER.
TOTJNVS HYPOLETJCUS.
THE Common Sandpiper is a spring and autumn migrant, arriving on our southern coasts ahout tho end
or the seennd week in April, and, after rearing its young in many parts of the country, leaving our
inhospitable shores to seek a warmer climate h.forc the frosts of autumn nud early winter have set in.
In Susses these birds may bo observed (in spring for the most part singly) about tho pools of brackish
water in the vicinity of the sea-beach. After a few days' halt they gradually make their way inland,
usually following the course of the rivers, and so on through the country to their summer-haunts. Stragglers
and late arrivals may ho seen for a month or five weeks later, but no instance of the species remaining to nest
in the county has come under my notice. I am aware that the fact of this Sandpiper having bred ill
Sussex is recorded on what ought to be good authority. The hanks of tho rivers and streams in this
part of the country are scarcely suitable to tho requirements of the species, and possibly (as I judge from
eggs that have been shown as undoubted specimens) mistakes, in some instances at least, may have
occurred. In Norfolk this attractive bird makes its appearance at much tho same date ' "- —
counties, frequenting during its short stay in the dis
the broads, or the edges of tin drains that run thrc
fly the lakes in Cumberland and the winding st
LEURUUEC »<, M
ict the slades and noist portion of th hills
gU the saltwa tor to udilats.
of the adjoining E I ha
the suovuie ttlOM, though, m t need! ag spt
Aloug the bores of the Tay these lirds
it to the eitr •rth of Suth rland ud C
this Sandpiper in June; and it is proliable that it pat
of eggs or young, no search wos made for tho ncst«- Alum- shores .IF the Tuy these birds usually
take up their quarters early in May, and from this p
I met Willi them in almost every suitable locality.
On one occasion four young birds in the down, evidently but lately hatched, were delected a few
yards above high-water mark on the shores of a sandy creek in Oairloch, on the west const of Ross-shire.
The spot was fiat and open, similar in every resiiect to the usual hauuts of tho Ringed Plover, several
of which species were breeding close at hand. That the Sandpiper should hare chosen a situation for
nesting so devoid or cover is most improbable, and I conclude that the tiny mites, notwithstanding their
apparent want of strength, bad succeeded in making their way down tho course of a rocky burn from
the adjoining moorland. Where Sandpipers take up their summer-quarters in wood«l localities they
may frequently be seen sitting (at times at a considerable height) in the surrounding timber. Numbers
are to be met with in various part* along the canal between Iuvernesa and Dochfour, near tlie head of
Loch Ness. When put up from their feeding-grounds, 1 REI>eatedly watched them alight on the limbs of
Scotch tlrs or other largo forest trees and run rapidly along tho branches jerking their tails.
1 was informed by tho keepers at Pitnacrce and other shootings along Strath lay (where these
Sandpiiiors are especially numerous during tho breeding-season) that great difficulty was experienced
in keeping open the traps set for Crows about the pools near tho river-side. The unfortunate bird*