270 THE COMMON REDSHANK 
of the coast where it can have access to muddy marshes. It does 
not, indeed, confine itself to such places, for it is not unfrequently 
to be seen on the seashore, feeding in the neighbourhood of Dunlins, 
Knots, Grey Plovers, and other Waders; or, when its favourite 
haunts are covered by the tide, a solitary bird or a party of three 
or four meet or overtake the stroller by the seaside, taking care 
to keep at a respectful distance from him, either by flying high over 
his head or sweeping along, a few feet above the surface of the sea, 
in the line of the breakers or in the trough outside them. They 
may easily be distinguished from any other common bird of the 
same tribe by the predominance of white in their plumage, Other 
Waders, such as Dunlins and Sanderlings, present the dark and light 
sides of their plumage alternately, but the Redshank shows its dark 
and white feathers simultaneously, and if seen only on the wing 
might be supposed to be striped with black and white. Keen-sighted 
observers can also detect its red legs. Its flight, as accurately 
described by Macgillivray, ‘is light, rapid, wavering, and as if 
undecided, and, being performed by quick jerks of the wings, 
_ bears some resemblance to that of a Pigeon’. During its flight it 
frequently utters its cry, which isa wild shrill whistle of two or three 
notes, approaching that of the Ringed Plover, but louder and less 
mellow. At low water, it frequents, in preference to all other places 
of resort, flat marshes which are intersected by muddy creeks, and 
in these it bores for food. It is very wary, flying off long before 
the fowler can come within shot if it happens to be standing 
exposed ; and even if it be concealed under a high bank, where it 
can neither see nor be seen, it detects his approach by some means, 
and in most cases is up and away before any but the most expert 
shot can stop its flight. On these occasions it invariably utters 
its alarm note, which both proclaims its own escape and gives warn- 
ing to all other birds feeding in the vicinity. Scattered individuals 
thus disturbed sometimes unite into flocks, or fly off, still keeping 
separate, to some distant part of the marsh. On one occasion only 
have I been enabled to approach near enough to a Redshank 
to watch its peculiar movements while feeding, and this observation 
I was much pleased in making, as it confirms the account of another 
observer. A writer in the Naturalist, quoted by Yarrell and Mac- 
gillivray, says: ‘I was very much struck with the curious manner 
in which they dart their bill into the sand nearly its whole length, 
by jumping up and thus giving it a sort of impetus, if i may use 
the word, by the weight of their bodies pressing it downwards.’ 
This account Macgillivray, with an unamiable sneer too common in 
his writings when he refers to statements made by others of facts 
which have not fallen within his own observation, considers to be 
so inaccurate that he pronounces the birds to be not Redshanks 
at all, and calls them ‘ Irish Redshanks’. On the occasion to which 
I have referred, I saw at a distance a largish bird feeding on a bank 
