The slight nest of moss and dried leaves is placed among coarse grass or rushes, or in a hole or sheltered hollow in a bank near a stream. Four pear-shaped eggs are laid, very large for the bird, reddish white in ground-colour, spotted and speckled with dusky brown.
The sandpiper utters on the wing a clear musical note, thrice repeated; and in the pairing season the male has a trilling note, or song, emitted while hovering in the air. Both old and young birds are able to swim with ease, and, to escape danger, dive as readily as a moorhen or water-rail.
Green Sandpiper.
Helodromus ochropus.
Upper parts olive-brown glossed with green and spotted with white and dusky; under parts white; tail white, the central feathers barred with black. Length, nine and a quarter inches.
The green sandpiper, like many other members of its family, is a visitor to the British Islands after the breeding season. This species differs from others in coming earlier and departing later. Half a century ago it was observed in Norfolk that the green sandpiper was to be met with during nearly every month in the year. The discovery was made later that it differs from other sandpipers in breeding in trees, in old nests of other birds, in squirrels’ dreys, and on mossy trunks and branches. On account of this singular habit its nest is rarely found; but that it has bred, and does breed, in this country scarcely admits of a doubt.
In continental Europe it is known to breed in Scandinavia, North and Central Russia, and North Germany. The eggs are four in number, pale greyish green in ground-colour, with small purple-brown spots and markings.
The green sandpiper frequents inland watercourses and swamps in wooded districts, and is excessively shy and wary in its habits; it flies rapidly, and utters when on the wing its shrill, piping note, thrice repeated.
Redshank.
Totanus calidris.
Summer plumage: upper parts pale brown closely streaked and barred with umber; secondaries nearly white; rump white, with a few dusky flecks; tail-feathers white barred with blackish; under parts white, streaked on the neck and breast with umber; legs and feet orange-red. Winter plumage: upper parts ash-colour; rump and under parts white, sparsely streaked and spotted with grey on the neck and breast. The female is slightly larger than the male. Length, eleven inches.