96 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



hundreds of apparently more likely situations in 

 the neighbourhood. I did not see a member of 

 the species in the Shetlands in 1898, although 

 Mr. J. J. Baldwin Young tells me it is abundant 

 in the Orkneys. On one occasion he spent a 

 month there during the breeding season, visiting 

 nearly all the islands in the group, and only 

 failed to meet with it on a single day. 



The Redshank is easily distinguished by its 

 oft-repeated, shrill, and discordant note, which it 

 never fails to utter whilst flying overhead when- 

 ever its breeding-grounds are visited. It varies its 

 habit of flying noisily overhead by alighting on some 

 rail, wall, or other eminence, and swaying its body 

 up and down as if it were on springs, in the most 

 Sandpiper-like manner. Sometimes it will hang in 

 the air for a few seconds against a breeze, with 

 its head pointing skywards, and its tail towards 

 the earth, and vibrate its wings very rapidly. 



Its nest is usually a deep cup-shaped depression 

 in a large tuft of coarse grass, some of which 

 overhangs and hides it ; the centre of a bunch 

 of rushes, or under a tuft of heather. Personally, 

 I have only seen it in situations of the two 

 former kinds. It is very sparingly lined with a 

 few blades of dead grass. The bird has a habit of 

 scratching out several spare nesting-sites not far 

 from the one adopted. When placed amongst an 

 abundant growth of coarse marsh grass, the nest 

 is not easy to find, and the best plan for the 

 student to adopt is to go out early in the morn- 

 ing, when a heavy dew will invariably enable him 

 to trace its whereabouts. 



The eggs, four in number, are easily distinguished 

 by their buff ground colour and bold markings. 



