SHOOTING AT OULTON BROAD 39 



coupled with the hard work, which are all essential to success, 

 lends an attraction to the sport without which it might have 

 been dull and uninteresting. 



Redshanks are interesting birds at all times, and if properly 

 cooked are considered savoury morsels for an epicure's table, 

 more especially if the birds are young. 



In March, or early in April, they leave the saltings, arriving 

 at the breeding grounds, where they pair off and distribute 

 themselves over the face of the fens and the marshes. They 

 commence to lay their eggs about the middle of May, and, 

 unlike the lapwing, they select (in preference to more open 

 ground) a thick tuff of rushes in which to conceal their nest, 

 contiguous to swampy and more rotten places. The young as 

 soon as hatched emerge from the nest, and the downy active 

 little birds form a most interesting subject to those who are 

 enabled to obtain a position commanding a view of their 

 movements. This, however, is seldom the case, as the parent 

 birds are most vigilant, being always on the alert, and so soon 

 as an intruder appears within their domain they circle round 

 and round overhead, uttering shrill, piercing cries, warning 

 the whole neighbourhood of danger. 



Should the intruder appear in the form of a dog, cat or 

 fox, they feign and counterfeit maimedness and inability, 

 fluttering away almost touching the ground, to lure the in- 

 truder from the vicinity of their young ; sometimes actually 

 placing themselves in danger through over-zeal in their 

 parental duties. 



The young of the redshank grow rapidly, but they are 

 not able to fly until fully fledged and quite fit for table. The 

 progress of their growth at this period is so rapid that within 

 a few days of their using their wings for the first time the 

 old birds lead them off to the saltings. Therefore, unless the 

 fenman can take his chance at the exact time (which a 

 judicious law now forbids) he has no other opportunity until 

 a subsequent year. 



There is another branch of sport to be mentioned before 

 quitting the hospitable shores of Oulton Broad for other fields 



