OF THE MARSH 199 



immediately I approached, and every Redshank was 

 at once made aware that an invader was in sight. 



This note is a clear, subdued, but far-carrying 

 whistle, with the melancholy quality which character- 

 ises the notes of several of the Waders, and which 

 seems to result from the gradually flattening transition 

 from the initial note through some slight interval to 

 a final note not determinable by the musical scale. It 

 is thus assimilated to the more finely graduated 

 inflections of speech, but lacking for human ears the 

 first quality of speech meaning, it remains an 

 unfinished musical utterance, suspended, incomplete. 

 In this it accords with the character of the Redshank, 

 which is ever a bird of the distance, evasive, elusive 

 as its own note, which goes wandering over shore-flat 

 and sea with a clearness counterfeiting nearness. 

 For what is distant is, in a sense, incomplete. This 

 note is not difficult to imitate, and I can generally 

 get a response from Redshanks when within hailing 

 distance. 



It required some inspection with the glass to 

 discriminate the Redshanks from a body of about a 

 hundred Black-headed Gulls present at the same 

 time. In the end the former were seen to form a 

 little group on the outskirts of the larger one 

 composed of the Black-headed Gulls ; for the 

 Redshanks were not only sociable among themselves, 

 but always showed a disposition to attach themselves 

 to the larger body of gulls when present. Conse- 

 quently, the liquid " Tyo!" of the Redshank was at 

 once translated into the guttural " Mrdoo ! " of the 

 Black-headed Gull by one of the more wary of them. 



Brown above and white below, like so many of the 



