510 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



throughout May. A small party visited some marshland near Cam- 

 bridge on May 9, 1909. The May birds are no doubt on passage to 

 North European breeding-places. 



The migratory movements of the redshank in the British Isles 

 are not very clear. A general southward movement takes place after 

 the breeding season, and there is no doubt that there are overseas 

 migrations, an influx from North Europe in autumn, and a return 

 passage in spring. From 2.30 A.M. to dawn on April 3rd and 4th 

 1910, large numbers passed over St. Catherine's Light in the Isle of 

 Wight, 1 and on August 17th and 18th large numbers were heard 

 passing over West Kent in the early morning, and a few at 

 St. Catherine's Light from 1 to 4 A.M. on September 10th and llth. 2 



The redshank nests chiefly inland on marshes, in water-meadows 

 and grass-land in the vicinity of rivers, and also on heather-covered 

 moorland at a fair altitude. In some localities it nests on marshes near 

 the coast, and even on sand and shingle at the edge of the vegetation 

 area above high-water mark. Where the birds are common, the nests 

 are sometimes so near to each other as to form colonies, but as a rule 

 they are distributed over a district in small scattered groups of two 

 or three to a dozen pairs, and the nests are a fair distance apart. 

 As a rule, the birds arrive at their inland breeding-grounds in March. 

 The fact that they may be seen going about in couples in the very 

 earliest days of their arrival on the nesting-grounds suggests that 

 they pair off before leaving their winter quarters, or pair for life. 



The redshank is at all times a noisy bird, and especially so 

 throughout the nesting season. On a small stretch of marshy 

 grassland tenanted by a pair of redshanks and two or three pairs of 

 snipe and lapwings, the most insistent and conspicuous cries will be 

 the loud clear call-note " too-oo-ee too-oo-ce " of the redshanks. Like the 

 other species of the genus, the redshank and greenshank frequently 

 bob their heads, accompanying the action with a quaint up and down 

 swaying of the body. The action suggests that the body is balanced 



1 B.O.C. Migration Report, 1911, xxviii. p. 178. 2 Ibid., p. 255. 



