292 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



to be a Eedshank in the way. The moment the troublesome fellow 

 catches a glimpse of an intruder, he is up in the air uttering his 

 shrill warning cry, which he persistently keeps up until every bird 

 within hearing has taken the friendly hint and decamped. 

 Frequently have I banged at these tell-tales, out of pure revenge, 

 in my early shooting experiences. On one occasion, having fired 

 at the leader of a flock passing me, the bird dropped into deep 

 water, and, to my surprise, was immediately surrounded by his 

 companions, who, with piercing outcries, hovered within a few 

 inches of his head, as if trying to get him lifted from the sea. 

 What they might have done it is now impossible to say the 

 fluttering crowd proving such a temptation as to cause me to 

 discharge the other barrel into the midst of them. My perch had 

 been a slippery one, for without a moment's warning, I went down 

 head foremost into the heaving waves, and my exertions to recover 

 the gun, after coming to the surface myself, were too arduous to 

 admit of any further bird observations for that day. 



During my shore rambles at Dunbar in the winter of 1846, my 

 attention was repeatedly attracted by the movements of a pair of 

 Redshanks, which I observed every morning flying together about 

 the same part of the coast. I noticed that when they alighted 

 anywhere, one remained sitting on a stone while the other foraged 

 among the surrounding pools for small marine animals, which it 

 carried to the stone. Seeing these movements so often repeated, 

 I was naturally curious to know why the two kept so constantly 

 together, and why the one always remained still while the other 

 was running about ; but, on examining both birds after they were 

 shot, I found, to my great sorrow, that the sitting bird a female 

 plump and fat as it was, had only one mandible the lower one 

 having been, apparently a considerable time before, completely 

 shot away. Thus the faithful mate of the previous summer had 

 ministered to the wants of his unfortunate companion. I have 

 never shot a Eedshank since. 



