BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 61 



mud-banks, but repair at once to their nesting-haunts. 

 This is characteristic of the migrations of all birds. In 

 autumn the journey is prefaced by much flocking and 

 assembling, and by days or weeks of lingering and delay, 

 for while food is still abundant the impulses to departure 

 are weak. In spring, however, the impulses are strong, 

 and the birds arrive as soon as, or sometimes sooner than, 

 is expedient, and at once disperse to prepare for the 

 serious business of the year. 



The Redshank chooses some haunt of the sort we have 

 already described, and in a good place of fair extent there 

 may be something approaching a colony of these birds. 

 Each pair, however, keeps more or less to itself; for, gre- 

 garious as most Waders are at other times, they tend to 

 be solitary when nesting. By this they certainly reap the 

 full advantage of the protective coloration of their eggs. 

 Early in the season the primitive but pleasing spring-song 

 may be heard as the male stands on a paling-post or hovers 

 about beside his mate. It may be described as a low, 

 warbling whistle, and is sometimes syllabled ' Leero, leero, 

 leero."* Early in April, or perhaps not for nearly a month 

 later, the eggs are laid. They are almost invariably four 

 in number, and are of a huffish stone-colour, with rich 

 reddish-brown blotches. They may be placed in the merest 

 apology for a nest on the open pasture or moorland, but 

 are more often concealed in the heart of a clump of tall 

 rushes. When disturbed, the parents fly about noisily, 

 trying to attract intruders from the vicinity of the nest. 



Just over three weeks is the period for which the eggs 

 are incubated before the four chicks emerge. These are the 

 usual active balls of fluffy down, with absurdly inadequate 

 wings and grotesquely long legs. With these they can 

 run at an astonishing pace, and on the approach of danger 

 they can scatter quickly and then ' squat," hiding themselves 



