Sandpipers breed about Clitheroe. I this year (1832) started an
old one from her nest at the root of a Weymouth pine. She screamed
out, and rolled about in such a manner, and seemed so completely
disabled, that, although perfectly aware that her intention was to
allure me from her nest, I could not resist my inclination to
pursue her, and in consequence I had great difficulty in finding
the nest again. It was built of a few dried leaves of the Weymouth
pine, and contained three young ones just hatched, and an egg
through which the bill of a young one was making its way. Yet,
young as they were, on my taking out the egg to examine it, the
little things, which could not have been out of the shell more
than an hour or two, set off out of the nest with as much celerity
as if they had been running about a fortnight. As I thought the
old one would abandon the egg if the young ones left the nest, I
caught them again and covering them up with my hand for some time,
they settled down again. Next day all four had disappeared.
Montagu says: "It is probable many of the Sandpipers are capable
of swimming if by accident they wade out of their depth. Having
shot and winged one of this species as it was flying across a
piece of water, it fell, and floated towards the side, and as we
reached to take it up, the bird instantly dived, and we never saw
it rise again to the surface; possibly it got entangled in the
weeds and was drowned." I quote this remark because the same thing
has happened to myself. I winged a Sandpiper, and on going to take
it up, it fluttered into the water and dived, but never rose again
to the surface that I could perceive, although I watched long and
attentively for it. In this instance the bird could not have been
entangled by the weeds, inasmuch as the bottom of the river was
covered with gravel and not a weed was growing there. Whether the
Sandpiper laid hold of the gravel at the bottom with its feet, or
how it managed, I cannot tell, nor have I ever been able to
account for it. (June 30th, 1832.)
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