LIMICOL^. ( 254 ) SCOLOPACID^. 



THE COMMON HEDSHANK. 



SEA SNIPE, POOL SNIPE, SAND COCK, KED-LEGGED SNIPE. 



Tutanus calidris. 



The rede-schank cry it my fut, my fut.^ 



COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND. 



The Eedshank is found during the autumn, winter, and 

 spring months on some parts of the coast of Berwickshire, 

 such as the neighbourhood of Oldcambus, where Mr. Hardy 

 occasionally sees small flocks about Greenheugh and Siccar 

 Point from about the beginning of July until the end of 

 April. 



Although the great majority of the Eedshanks are 

 migratory, and leave our shores in spring for their breed- 

 ing grounds in the northern parts of Europe, returning 

 again in autumn, yet many remain in Great Britain 

 throughout the summer and rear their young in suitable 

 localities. Mr. Gray says that a few pairs breed in the 

 Lammermuirs.^ Mr. Tweedie, Swinton Public School, kindly 

 sent to me a note on the 8th of April 1889, saying that a 

 pair of Eedshanks had again returned to a field of tussocky 

 grass on the farm of Swinton Hill, lying immediately to the 



1 Ley den, iu his Glossary to The Complaynt of Scotland, makes out the "rede- 

 schank " to be the Fieldfare ; but I cannot see how the Fieldfare can be the bird 

 referred to, as its legs are dark -brown, and not red. The Redshank was known 

 by the same name as at present several hundred years ago, at the time when the 

 Complaynt was written (1513-42), and is frequently mentioned in the household 

 books of the 5th Earl of Northumberland, circa 1512, and of the L'Estranges of 

 Hunstanton circa 1527. 



2 Hist. B&r. Nat. Ciub, vol. viii. p. 51. 



