210 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



Grateful to the ear as the melody of the song thrush, 

 when heard from the branches of the yet leafless trees, 

 or the first whistle of the stone-curlew and the ringed 

 plover in their desolate haunts on the warrens and 

 " breck " lands, is the scream of the redshank in the 

 early spring, just returned to its summer haunts amidst 

 the broads and marshes. In such localities, in very 

 mild seasons, they may be heard as early as the middle 

 of February, but are more generally seen in pairs about 

 the beginning of March, when their nervous actions 

 and swift jerking flight, added to their incessant and 

 clamorous cries,* enliven the dreariest waste of marshy 

 ground. It is noticeable, also, that the cock redshank, 

 in the breeding season, has a " song " of its own, quite 

 as much so as the ringed plover or the common snipe. 

 More than once, too, in the early spring, I have seen 

 the male bird, as Mr. Lubbock describes it, "pirouet- 

 ting" on a gate post, now running quickly along the 

 top rail calling loudly to its mate, now bowing and 

 fluttering like an amorous pigeon, and less mindful of 

 danger than at any other time. With Thompson ("Birds 

 of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 205), I am inclined to think 

 that " what may seem timidity or fear on the part of the 

 redshank, should rather be attributed to restlessness of 

 disposition," shown as much when in pairs as when in 

 large congregations. The first eggs are usually laid by 

 the middle of April, and the nests are so artfully con- 



* Mr. W. H. Power, in some interesting notes on this species 

 (" Zoologist," 1866, p. 125), alludes to their habit of " rising and 

 falling in the air [in their spring flight] with a tremulous motion 

 of the wings, at the same time making a trilling noise," and adds 

 that at night, for they never appear to rest, beside their usual 

 note uttered when on the wing, they will join in a sort of chorus, 

 " one bird beginning and others chiming in, one after another, 

 much in the same manner as a flock of ducks assist the old drake 

 in his clamorous quacking." 



