284 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



can be reached only under certain conditions 

 of weather and tide. Redshanks and snipes 

 are said to be common birds by would-be 

 ornithologists, one or two of whom, I dare 

 venture to affirm, have never seen either the 

 birds or their nests in a natural state. 



After a lifelong observation, I have only 

 met with the birds above-mentioned twice 

 where they were nesting ; and in each case 

 it was under exceptional circumstances and 

 quite by accident. In one case I almost 

 placed my foot upon one of the sitting birds. 

 Yet I was well aware that dozens of them 

 were about, and I knew that the greater part 

 of them were breeding somewhere, and close 

 enough at hand, too. But either of these birds, 

 if a human form is seen near their haunts, 

 will pitch down thirty, and even fifty, yards 

 away from its nest, running through the bents, 

 rushes, or blite to it like a rat. If there were 

 only the birds to look after, the matter would 

 not be so difficult ; but you have to look after 

 your own safety as well, the spots that they 

 select being so dangerous that if you did make 

 a mistake once, the chances are that you would 

 never make another. So far as my own visits 

 are concerned to those haunts which I have 



