340 TOTAXUS CALIDRIS. 



shank has a rapid short whistle, and also repeats a clicking 

 note. It is very shy, though in the breeding season it flies 

 in wide circles round one's head. I have seen it perch on a 

 paling rail. The nests, I think, must be covered up, other- 

 wise I cannot understand how they are so seldom found. 

 For all my searching last season, I could find but one — 

 April 22nd. It was on a strip of mud between two pools, 

 and formed of fragments of equiseta, with but little of hollow 

 visible. There Avere only three eggs ; but they had not 

 been sat upon, and probably one would have been added. 

 The Redshanks feed much upon caddis-cases, and discharge 

 the straws in pellets, commonly found in their haunts." 



In Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson, it " is common 

 around the coast ; but a small proportion only of those seen 

 during the autumn and winter breed in the island." This is 

 probably the case in Scotland also. In some parts of Ireland, 

 the Redshanks usually breed, as is stated by the same emi- 

 nent naturalist, on the shingly beaches of sea islands. I 

 have not heard of its doing so with us ; but circumstances 

 induce so many changes in the habits of some birds, that 

 there is nothing surprising in the fact. Mr. St. John says : — 

 " The Redshank does not breed on the stones or bare ground, 

 but in some spot of rough grass ; their motions are very 

 curious at this time of the year, as they run along with great 

 swiftness, clapping their wings together audibly above their 

 heads, and flying about, round and round any intruder with 

 rapid jerks, or hovering in the air like a hawk, all the time 

 \ittering a loud and peculiar whistle. They lead their young 

 to the banks of any pool or ditch at hand, and they conceal 

 themselves in the holes and corners close to the waters' 

 edge." 



Young. — When fully fledged, the young have the basal 

 half of the lower mandible dull reddish ; the feet orange, the 

 claws dusky. The upper part of the head greyish-brown, the 

 feathers edged with whitish ; the hind part of the neck grey ; 

 the fore part of the back, the scapulars, and inner secondaries 

 greyish-brown, the feathers margined with an undulated band 

 of yellowish-white ; the smaller wing coverts similar, but 



