78 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



parison with other birds of the same family. The 

 nest is like that of the Lapwing, and the eggs, four 

 in number, are greenish-buff in ground-colour, 

 sprinkled all over with spots of dark brown, irregular 

 in size, and blotches of light purple grey. The 

 Greenshank, like most waders, perches at times : 

 as the Heron is quite at home in the trees, why 

 should not the small waders be so also ? They 

 certainly are now and again, but not to the extent 

 that quiet fisher, the Heron, is. This bird will decoy 

 a man or a dog away, if possible, if either comes 

 where it is nesting. The nests of all this family of 

 birds are hard to find, for any tussock or tuft of 

 moor tangle growing on the thousands of detached 

 hummocks will hide them. Besides this, if you 

 know that a false step will sink you up to your 

 waist in peat-bog, you are not able to give your 

 undivided attention to the matter. 



Shy and wary to a degree as this bird is, a female 

 has allowed herself to be lifted off her eggs when 

 these were just on the point of hatching off, without 

 flying off. Sometimes the bird visits, for a short 

 space, inland waters. 



Some birds, so to speak, compel attention, and the 

 Greenshank when met with is one of these ; and such 

 are the Yellowshanks and the dusky Redshanks, 

 which we shall only name here, for they are not 

 ordinary fowl, or at all events not likely to be met 

 with by ordinary fowlers. The bird under notice 

 sets you conjecturing what those desolate haunts of 

 his in northern lands must be like. Desolate they 



