338 



Pictures of Bird Life 



Redshanks, with their " Tip-tip." the Avocets' " AMiit-whit- 

 whitter-whitter-whitter," and tlie " Kree-ee " of thou- 

 sands of Terns gyrating unceasingly overliead, would make 

 anybody think that the whole marsh was full of their 

 eggs. But not a bit of it ; there was hardly an egg to 

 be seen. A few Redshanks' nests held one and two eggs, 

 and the others were almost without exception empty. 



INIany Dunlins 

 in pairs ran 

 about in their 

 usual tame and 

 familiar man- 

 ner only a few 

 yards away, 

 but had not 

 even tlien 



begun to nest. 

 Some day.s 

 later we foimd 

 numbers of 

 nests like 

 Redshanks', eacli in a small tuft of grass, only very nuicli 

 smaller ; but they had not begun to lay wlicn we left. 

 Blue-headed AVagtails were also numerous, and tliey also 

 had apparently not begun to nest. 



The walking was bad — soft and slippery mud, bright 

 yellow in colour from the iron, I believe, wlien undis- 

 turbed, but black as ink when trodden on. The whole 



Nest ok Pintail (/Jti/i/n ai /i/n > 



