SPRING-TIME ON THE MOORS 



47 



will not, it is true, be in evidence for another week ; but 

 already the moorlands become resonant with vernal 

 notes, with the sibilant pipe of curlew and plover, 

 peewit and sandpiper, the flute-like song - of the ring- 

 ouzel, the purring - of dunlin, and less musical notes of 

 wheatears and gulls. The noisy redshanks are already 

 (by April ioth) all localised in pairs about ■ the low- 

 lying rushy pastures or stagnant backwaters, and very 

 graceful are their actions as they wheel overhead, 

 alternating rapid flight with short jerky periods, or 



Redshank in April. 



poising in mid air on wings curiously bent beneath and 

 pointing stiffly downwards ; anon perching on a dead 

 bough or a sheep-rail, still piping. We have found the 

 nest of this species, on Reedwater, as early as April 

 22nd with four eggs. The redshank, in recent years, 

 has increased immensely in numbers : six or eight pairs 

 will now nest on a single moss, or marshy haugh, in 

 parts where the bird was all but unknown when the 

 first edition of this book appeared (1889). They are 

 also nesting higher out on the fells than they formerly 

 did. Among the bogs and mosses, snipe course high 



