BIKD-LIFE ON THE MOORS IN MAY. 39 



The Redshank is another bird whose nest is rarely found 

 on the moors, by reason of the sparse and scattered dis- 

 tribution of the breeding pairs, and the elaborate concealment 

 of the nest. These do not, like the Dunlin, breed high up 

 on the fells, but prefer the rushy fields of the lower grounds 

 and small patches of bog. 



Both the species just mentioned breed in some numbers 

 on the great marshes of the Solway, and may there be much 

 more readily studied than on the highlands of Northumber- 

 land. These marshes are of great extent — for many miles 

 a dead flat, grassy expanse, hardly raised above sea-level, 

 and intersected by muddy channels, and creeks of salt water 

 — a very different region to that frequented by the Dunlins 

 on the moors. I well remember one day my brother 

 Alfred and I spent on these marshes in mid -May, It was 

 intensely hot, and we were panting with thirst (all the 

 water being brackish), when right before us, a mile or two 

 distant across the flat marsh, we observed a large house 

 embedded among trees, and having a broad sheet of water 

 lying between us and it. It was an exquisite mirage. So 

 perfectly distinct was every detail, that we felt inclined to 

 hurry forward for a drink of fresh water from the lake. 

 Whence came that image it is impossible to conceive. 

 There was not, we knew, an object on the marsh bigger than 

 a mole-hill, there was not a drop of water, nor was there in 

 that direction a house nearer than tbe opposite shore of 

 St. George's Channel. I have seen many remarkable 

 mirage efi'ects in the great flat mdiismas of Southern 

 Spain — and once in the Arctic Seas we observed a singular 

 appearance of rocky surf-beaten islands where none existed. 

 Two ships which happened to be in sight, were also re- 

 produced, inverted immediately above the actual vessels. 

 In all these other cases, however, there was always more or 

 less of distortion or extravagance. Here every feature was 

 natural and defined. Never have I seen so perfect an optical 

 delusion as that mirage on the Solway. 



Though the birds were aburdant enough on the Solway 

 marshes, there are few nests so diflScult to find as that of a 

 Piedshank. She hollows out some thick tuft of coarse grass, 



