518 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



but clearer and louder. It is also if anything bolder, and certainly 

 wilder than the redshank. According to Collett, quoted by Naumann, 

 the male bears the greater part of the duty of incubation, and is also 

 more attentive to the young. 1 Directly the young are hatched they 

 are conducted by their parents to the nearest marsh, and when well 

 feathered they leave the breeding-grounds for muddy estuaries and 

 other favourite feeding-places. The greenshank is said to be the 

 earliest Wader to arrive in Ireland after the nesting season. They 

 have been seen on the Mayo coast as early as the end of June and 

 the beginning of July, generally in family parties of about six. They 

 scatter widely when feeding ; the old birds are very watchful, and 

 warn the young when danger threatens. 



Both species wade into water up to their bodies, and being good 

 swimmers frequently venture out of their depth. The redshank has 

 been seen to settle on the water some distance from land, and after 

 swimming about for a time, rise easily and fly off. A greenshank was 

 observed to plunge repeatedly under water to escape a hawk that 

 was pursuing it. 2 Stevenson gives an instance of three young 

 redshanks that were seen swimming across Hickling Broad while 

 the old birds flew overhead, leading, directing, or encouraging them 

 forward. 3 



The redshank repairs to the mouths of rivers and the coast as 

 soon as the young are strong on the wing. It is the most sociable 

 of its genus, forming tolerably large flocks, and mixing freely with 

 other Waders. In autumn and winter it frequents chiefly muddy 

 estuaries, tidal rivers in salt-marshes, and mussel-beds on the open 

 shore ; boring for worms and crustaceans, and picking molluscs 

 and other creatures from the surface. Macgillivray quotes a passage 

 from an article in the first volume of the Naturalist, in which the 

 writer describes a curious action of the redshank while feeding. It 

 is said to dart its bill "into the sand nearly its whole length by 



1 Vijgel Mitteleuropas, ix. p. 94. * Birds of Ireland, p. 303. 



3 Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 213. 



