THE RED-LEG 301 



their souls with dread ; but their brave parents attacked him, 

 and drove him off, like a great bully. 



Tea, tea, and they stand upon the bank of a broad river — 

 their first dike ; and though 'tis their first essay, they plunge 

 right boldly in, and are soon sailinggaily across, following their 

 clear guiding tea, tea, when suddenly a loud squeal startles 

 them ; a huge and horrible snout, with great sharp rows of 

 teeth, shows for a moment where the baby was, and a sister 

 has disappeared below the water, swallowed by a hungry 

 pike. 



Amid shrieks of despair, the old birds sweep down and 

 cry anxiously to their young children to hasten across the 

 dangerous river; and when they climb exhausted on the 

 opposite shore, having lost two little sisters, the cheery tea- 

 tea leads them on through a coppice of chate, with its sharp- 

 edged leaves, on through forests of rush — for they are nearing 

 the broad — until at length they halt, exhausted, staring over 

 the inland sea; and the anxious parents fly down beside 

 them and begin feeding them, as they gaze between each 

 mouthful at the far-spreading, glistening waves, where the 

 strange grasses float idly. And in some cases they adven- 

 ture this inland sea, the old birds flying about and alighting 

 on the sluggish waters, calling them, steering them across 

 the great silent lagoon, as surely as any compass steers the 

 mariner. 



It is a strange migration, full of sublime terror to the 

 young birds ; and yet a commonplace incident in early sum- 

 mer, and more readily to be seen than the young snipe's 

 exodus, as red-legs are noisier, the snipe going down to the 

 water in a quieter, more stealthy manner. 



Red-legs seldom travel farther than a quarter of a mile 

 in a day, but always in a straight line for the water, even 

 passing through gardens, across roads, under hedges; like 

 the lemming, their course never varies by a fraction of a 

 point. 



Nor are the birds exempt from dangers when they grow 



