REDSHANK AND GREENSHANK 519 



jumping up, and thus giving it a sort of impetus by the weight of 

 the body pressing it downwards." 1 Macgillivray questions the 

 accuracy of this, as he himself had never seen redshanks behaving 

 in the manner described. I have not seen them actually jump up, 

 but once when watching redshanks feeding at low tide in the muddy 

 bed of a small river, I noticed particularly that they gave an upward 

 heave of their bodies, bringing their weight, as it were, suddenly 

 down when they drove their bills into the mud. Snipe bore with 

 a similar action, especially when the ground is not very soft. A 

 curious method of feeding was observed by Colonel Irby in India, 

 He says that the redshanks, in parties of thirty or forty, " form a sort 

 of oblique line, each one a little in the rear of the other, and advance 

 across a shallow jheel, all with their heads down, half under water, 

 and moving them from right to left with great rapidity. The noise 

 they make in the water is distinctly audible." Colonel Irby adds that 

 they probably feed in this way in other countries, but being very 

 common and tame in India they are easy to watch. 2 



The redshank is one of the most alert of the Waders, for which 

 reason it is by no means a favourite with sportsmen, as by its loud 

 notes of alarm it disturbs all the birds in its neighbourhood. Professor 

 Patten says he has heard old birds when on the shore in early autumn 

 screaming around overhead as they do when their breeding-haunts 

 are invaded, although the immature birds of the party were feeding 

 a considerable distance away. 3 



As a British species, the greenshank is most numerous on the 

 autumn migration, which continues through August and September 

 to the beginning of October, after which month it is seldom seen, 

 except in those favoured localities where small parties remain 

 throughout the winter. It does not frequent the sort of localities 

 favoured by the redshank, but, according to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, 

 prefers "a broad and shallow creek, below the brow of a salt marsh, 



1 Macgillivray, British Birds, iv. p. 337. 



* Ibis, 1861, p. 239. 3 Aquatic Birds, p. 342. 



