REDSHANK AND GREENSHANK 515 



of the breeding season one may approach to within a short distance 

 of them before they are aware of it, when they will sit close, rather 

 than risk revealing their nests by flight He gives as another reason 

 for close sitting that the nest is sometimes made in a "weak" place, 

 i.e. in a position favouring an unobserved approach. One can as he 

 says often get near to such a nest before the bird is aware of it. 

 "Then she becomes paralysed with fear," allowing herself to be 

 touched or lifted from the nest. 



I have never noticed the dependence of redshanks on lap- 

 wings, and should certainly not have thought the redshank needed 

 to depend on any bird to warn it of the approach of danger, but no 

 doubt Yincent had good reasons for asserting that they do so. I 

 certainly do not agree that the birds are " paralysed with fear," as we 

 have the case described by Mr. H. W. Ford-Lindsay, in which a bird 

 allowed itself to be handled almost every day. Many birds, unap- 

 proachable at other seasons, habitually lose their wariness during the 

 period of incubation. It is a temporary suspension of the instinct 

 of self-preservation, other instincts having become paramount for the 

 time. 



As a rule among ground-nesting birds, the closest sitters are the 

 most protectively coloured ; it is unusual to find a conspicuously 

 coloured species i.e. conspicuous amidst its usual surroundings 

 other than a light sitter, unless it nests under cover. The grey 

 back of the redshank might not be considered a good colour for 

 escaping observation among green grass. It is, however, astonishing 

 how near one may be looking right at the bird, in fact without 

 seeing it. The redshank sits very flat, and, as before stated, 

 generally under the incurved grass-blades covering the nest. The 

 grass at this early season of the year is not by any means all green, 

 nor is the back of the redshank all clear grey, as in winter. The 

 summer or spring plumage of both this species and the greenshank 

 differs but little from the winter plumage. The neck and breast 

 become more thickly speckled and streaked with grey and brown, 



