10 Redshank 



once, and only once, had an opportunity of seeing a family party 

 on the move from the common to the mere, but on that occasion 

 the old birds led the young ones, sometimes running in front of them, 

 sometimes flying a few yards, and then alighting again, and stopping 

 till the very small chickens had laboriously joined them, the whole 

 journey being performed on foot. 



The situation of the nest I happened to know in this case. It 

 was about a quarter of a mile from the mere, on a whin-covered 

 hill, which ran down rather steeply on the southern face towards 

 the mere. 



I was sitting perfectly hidden in the lowest of a range of shooting 

 butts, which extended North and South along the breadth of the 

 common, and from the butt I was able to command a fair view of 

 the mere. 



I was looking the mere over carefully with a telescope* to see 

 what birds were on it, and whether there were any strangers about, 

 for it was about the tenth of May, and the spring migration was 

 at its height. 



While engaged thus, I heard a Redshank call on tlie top of the 

 hill, quite a soft note altogether unlike their ordinary clamorous 

 cry. I turned round and looked up the hill with the glass, and 

 presently a Redshank came into view and stopped on the skyline. 

 Then there was another call, and a second Redshank flew over the 

 skyline and dropped beside its mate. Both of them seemed to be 

 waiting for something, or to be alarmed at something, for all their 

 attention was directed to some object behind them, and all the time 

 they kept uttering their soft, peculiar call note. After a pause, 

 they ran down the hill a little way, and stopped again ; one flew 

 back a few yards and lighted on the ground, seemed to pick at 

 something on the grass, and then ran forward again to join his mate. 

 I now saw, for the first time, that four very small, fluffy balls of 

 down were members of the party, and that the two parent Redshanks 

 were shepherding them down the hill towards the mere. 



I was perfectly concealed, and the birds seemed entirely 

 unsuspicious of danger. Slowly the procession came down the hill, 

 getting ever nearer and nearer to me, sometimes both Redshanks 

 leading and calling, sometimes one flying or running back, and 

 apparently acting as a parental whipper-in. They were, perhaps, a 

 quarter of an hour before they reached me, and were then within 

 a hundred yards of the water for which they were making. 



I had hoped to see them finish their journey from my hiding- 

 place, but, unfortunately, I was less well hidden from below than 

 from above, and as the leading parent passed below my butt, she 

 caught a glint from the barrel of my telescope. In a moment the 

 scene was changed ; both the old birds rose with loud cries of alarm, 



* By the bye, a telescope is a far more satisfactory instrument than field glasses, where 

 you can use it ; you can't pick up flying birds very easily with it, but for examining a large area 

 of ground, it is invaluable. I always carry both, but I imagine that I use a telescope five times 

 as often as the field glasses. 



