142 BRITISH BIRDS. 



The breeding-season of the Redshank commences in April, and fresh 

 eggs may be obtained from the beginning of that month to near the end 

 of May. Saxby says that in Shetland he has never seen the eggs earlier 

 than the 13th of May. In Northern Europe the laying-season is later; 

 and I have taken fresh eggs on the 22nd of June in the extreme north of 

 Norway. The Redshank is a very sociable bird during the breeding- 

 season, and numbers of its nests may be found in a small area of suitable 

 ground. In the pairing-season the cock bird often soars into the air, and 

 serenades his mate with a trilling sound, or amorously displays his charms 

 by bowing and strutting, opening and closing his wings, and spreading his 

 tail. At this season he sometimes alights on trees or even a post ; and 

 Stevenson records instances of a bird of this species performing various 

 manoeuvres of courtship as he ran along the top rail of a gate. The 

 site of the nest is on the ground, often in the centre of a. grass tuft, 

 or beneath the shade of a tall weed or little bush of heather. The nests 

 are generally cunningly concealed, and arched over by the surrounding 

 herbage, which falls in natural pendants over them. Sometimes a site is 

 chosen amongst the drifted rubbish above high-water mark. The nest is 

 very slight : in many cases the centre of the tuft is trodden down into a 

 receptacle for the eggs, but at other times a few dead bents, straws, or 

 scraps of moss, heath, or reed are placed as a lining to the selected hollow. 

 The eggs are four in number, rather large for the size of the bird, and 

 pyriform in shape. They vary in ground-colour from very pale buff to 

 rich ochraceous buff^ and are spotted and blotched with rich dark-browu 

 surface-markings, and with underlying spots of paler brown and grey. 

 On some eggs a few streaky lines of dark brown are pencilled on the large 

 end. Most of the large markings are on the large end of the egg, and 

 some specimens are more finely and handsomely spotted than others. 

 They vary in length from 1*9 to 1-65 inch, and in breadth from 1-3 to 

 1*17 inch. They are not easily confused with the eggs of any other British 

 bird, being yellower in colour than those of the Ruff or Great Snipe, 

 which they somewhat resemble. Only one brood appears to be reared in 

 the year. 



The Redshank is a very wary bird when its breeding-grounds are in- 

 truded upon. At the first alarm it quits its eggs, and flies in circles, 

 screaming overhead, sometimes performing various aerial evolutions. 

 When the young are hatched the old birds become even more anxious. 

 As soon as the young are able to fly, the Redshank quits the inland moors 

 and marshes, and seeks the coast, frequenting in most abundance the 

 extensive salt-marshes and mud-flats at the mouths of large rivers. As 

 the season advances, the resident Redshanks are increased in numbers 

 by migratory birds from the north ; the flocks become larger as these 

 migrants haunt the coast for some time ere passing on again. It is a 



