COMMON EEDSHANK. 5 



to observe afar the approach of danger, on which she at once slips silently away. 

 Mere casual search is therefore utterly useless ; it is necessary that the eye should 

 instantly detect the bird as she springs from her nest — no easy matter at perhaps 

 100 or 200 yards' distance, and when the air is filled with Peewits and other birds 

 wheeling about. Then, when one does succeed in detecting the movement at the 

 exact moment, there still remains the difficulty of marking the precise spot on so 

 bare and featureless a place." 



Mr. T. E. Buckley, in his notes " On the Birds of the East of Sutherland," 

 writes as follows respecting this species * : — " Common the whole year round, and 

 coming up the strath to breed. I used to take their eggs in a meadow at 

 Balnacoil, about a mile from the house, where there were always several pairs 

 breeding. The nest seems to be invariably placed in a tuft of grass, and like the 

 Peewit, several nests are made before they finally fix on one in which to 

 lay. They are very difficult to find, and during the time they are laying the birds 

 never appear near the nest. The eggs are not laid on four consecutive days. 

 When they go far up the hill to breed, I have generally noticed that they keep 

 near any green spot, and do not nest in heather like the Greenshank." 



'Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow,' vol. v. part 1, p. 144. 



