COMMON REDSHANK TATLER. 339 



The nest, which is placed on a tuft in marshy ground, or on 

 a dry spot in a meadow, is composed of a few blades of grass 

 carelessly arranged in a slight hollow. The eggs, four in 

 number, are pyriform, an inch and seven-twelfths in length, 

 an inch and two-twelfths in breadth, pale greenish-grey, 

 spotted and blotched with reddish-brown and blackish-brown. 

 The young, which I have never met with, are said to have 

 the back of the neck without feathers, like that of the Bit- 

 tern, and usually to keep the head sunk back between the 

 shoulders. 



The flesh of this bird is not inferior as an article of food 

 to that of the Godwits and Sandpipers. It is not unfre- 

 quently seen in the markets. 



In the eastern parts of the middle divisions of Scotland, 

 it is by no means a very rare bird at any season of the year. 

 In summer it is found among fens or salt-marshes about the 

 mouths of some of the rivers ; the Ythan, for example, above 

 Newburgh, where great numbers breed. It is also to be seen 

 by lakes and about marshes in the interior, as at the upper 

 end of the Loch of Skene, and even in the midst of the 

 central mountains, as by Loch Muic and Loch Callader. 

 It leaves the interior in the end of July or the beginning of 

 August, and returns in the beginning of April. On the 23d 

 of that month, in 1849, I observed very large flocks at the 

 upper end of the Montrose Basin, where they were feeding 

 along with Knots and Dunlins. On the 26th I saw more 

 than forty individuals, mostly in pairs, dispersed along the 

 shingly and flat sea coast extending from John's Haven to 

 Gurdon, in Kincardineshire. In such places, it is scarcely 

 possible to obtain a shot, for, although they often fly up to 

 an intruder, and sweep around, reiterating their shrill cries, 

 they keep at a safe distance. 



Mr. Burnett informs me that they arrive in his neigh- 

 bourhood, on the river Don, during the last week of March, 

 coming in small parties or singly, and resting on the shingly 

 margins till they become numerous, when, after three weeks 

 or a month, they disperse, and resort to low marshy spots. 

 " In such places and on soft moors they are very numerous, 

 and reside together with the Common Snipe. The Bed- 



