rOMIMON REDSHANK. 



KQ! 



receding tide, and the birds are then seen in flocks ; in the 

 spring, however, they retire to fens and marshes, near pools 

 or lakes, and to the banks of rivers, where during the breed- 

 ing season they are only seen singly or in pairs. They feed 

 on aquatic insects, and on marine or other worms, which they 

 probe for with their beaks in soft mud. Mr. Thompson says 

 they are common in Ireland, and a writer in the first volume 

 of the Naturalist, mentions " that they are very numerous in 

 Dublin Bay, where it is stated these birds may sometimes be 

 seen in very large flocks, frequently amounting to one hun- 

 dred and fifty or two hundred ; and the larger the flock, the 

 more shy and difficult were the birds of approach ; they are 

 always on the look out, and take wing on the least alarm or 

 any appearance of danger; when running along the sands, 

 the Redshank has the same kind of dipping motion for which 

 some of the smaller Sandpipers are so remarkable. I was 

 very much struck with the curious manner in which they dart 

 their bills 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." 



Redshanks are not uncommon in Cornwall, Devonshire, 

 and Dorsetshire. They still frequent Romney Marsh as 

 they did in the days of Montagu, for the purpose of breed- 

 ing. Mr. Jesse sent me a specimen killed at Hampton in 

 autumn. The authors of the catalogue of the Norfolk and 

 Suffolk birds, say, " the Redshank is found in considerable 

 numbers in many of the marshes both of Norfolk and Suffolk 

 during the breeding season. It is indeed more common than 

 any other kind of wader. To sportsmen it is very trouble- 

 some, flying around them and uttering an incessant shrill 

 whistle, which alarms all the other birds near the spot. A 

 few Redshanks are sometimes met with during: the winter 

 season, but the greater part of them migrate. This species is 

 found solitary and also in flocks, on the ooze of the river 



