The nest is placed among rough herbage in a fairly damp place. It is a deep cup, well lined with grass and bents. The eggs, usually four but often three in number, are greyish green, blotched and spotted with various shades of brown. Except during the actual pairing the male takes no part in the housekeeping, and when the females are sitting the males may be seen together in flocks. In food and other habits this species resembles the majority of Waders.
In winter the sexes are alike, except that the male is very much larger than the female. The upper parts are of a uniform brownish, and the under parts brownish grey, with white margins to the feathers; belly white. The young resemble the adults but are darker on the back, the feathers of which have rufous or buff margins. The neck and breast are of a pale pinkish buff.
In spring, the male grows a long ruff on the neck and upper breast as well as a backwardly directed ear tuft on each side of the head. This ruff can be raised or depressed at will, and is of a variety of colours, hardly any two being exactly alike. The face also becomes covered with a mass of warty carbuncles. The feathers of the back and flanks are black, mottled, spotted, or barred with chestnut. The female has no ruff, but becomes darker on the back and breast. Length of male 12·5 in.; bill 1·5 in.; wing 7·25 in.: of female 10 in.; wing 6 in.
THE BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER Tringites rufescens (Vieillot)
Several examples of this American species have been obtained on our shores. This bird is somewhat like the preceding species although much smaller, but it may always be recognised by the black markings on both sides of the inner webs of the primaries and secondaries. Length 8 in.; bill 0·9 in.; wing 5·25 in.
BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER Bartramia longicauda (Bechstein)
This is another North American species, of which some eight or ten examples have been procured in this country.
Its general colour is pale tawny buff, barred and mottled with blackish. For a Sandpiper its tail is distinctly long and barred. Length 11·5 in.; bill 1·2 in.; wing 6·6 in.
[We may note here that the Sandpipers we have hitherto been dealing with have had the tail plain, whereas in the remaining ones, which belong to the genus _Totanus_, the tail is barred.]