ip8 THE PLOUGHING 



departing Ringed Plovers, for early in the morning 

 of the 1 2th July, I found over a score of the former 

 in the place just vacated by the latter. 



The ditches 'having been emptied, the water from 

 the flats lying between them was slowly drawing off 

 to refill them, leaving smooth mudbanks patched and 

 striped with shallow pools and gutters. Redshanks 

 profited by such an invitation to come in from the 

 1 2th until the I5th July in quite unusual numbers, 

 being joined on the first day by a hundred Black- 

 headed Gulls, mature and immature, and by a score 

 of Common Sandpipers and half-a-dozen Snipe 

 between the I3th and the i7th. 



When it is stated that our " marsh" is at best but 

 a small affair lying in a bend of the River Mersey 

 four miles south-west from the city of Manchester 

 and thirty miles from the sea, it will be understood 

 with what particularity we count up our rarer visitors, 

 especially when moving in numbers quite unusual 

 with us, and at a time when combined movement 

 is sufficiently significant in any but a breeding area. 



It is my habit to visit this strip of marshland daily 

 in the early morning, a time when birds are always 

 visible in greater numbers, and submit to observation 

 with less concern, than at other parts of the day. 

 For, apart from the absorbing occupation of breaking 

 their fast, they seem to be aware that the world of 

 man is not yet properly awake, and will at such a 

 time approach situations which later in the day they 

 avoid. 



Among birds less influenced by such considerations 

 to throw off their habitual caution, the Redshanks 

 are prominent. " Tyo!" came the well known note 



