COMMON REDSHANK. 2s 
little downy things but a few days old, though not 
in the nest, which I subsequently found at a short 
distance, and even then, but for their bright bead- 
like eyes I might have passed them by unseen.* 
After all my trouble I could not help stopping a few 
minutes longer to examine these beautiful little creatures 
in their soft russet coats, barred on the back and wings 
with two shades of brown, and their legs as strangely 
disproportioned to their bodies as those of a foal in its 
earliest stage. Then, with something of regret, as I 
very much wanted a specimen, I put the youngsters 
back into their tuft of grass, but was fully repaid by 
witnessing, from my former vantage ground, the meet- 
ing between old and young. 
As a further instance, also, of the affectionate solici- 
tude of the redshank for its progeny, I am enabled, 
through the kindness of Mr. Rising, of Horsey, to give 
the following interesting anecdote. ‘On the 29th of 
May, 1868, as a marshman was ‘ quanting’ his boat 
over Hickling broad, he was suddenly attracted by the 
peculiar notes of a couple of red-legs [as they are com- 
monly called in Norfolk], which kept flying slowly and 
very low over the water, evidently bent upon an onward 
course, but detained by some peculiar cause of anxiety 
as they took no notice of him whatever. As he drew 
closer, he observed something swimming in the water, 
which on a nearer approach proved to be three little 
redshanks. Still perfectly indifferent to his presence, 
the old birds proceeded with their ‘labour of love,’ 
* Mr. W. H. Power, in the paper before referred to, describes 
the capture of a young redshank, which, from a kind of ventrilo- 
quism in its chirping notes, seemed to be always ata little distance, 
first in one direction and then in another, but was at length dis- 
covered, nearly at his feet, when he was about to give up the 
search as hopeless. 
