GAME BIRDS AND IVILD FOWL. 229 



passage that the bird congregates into flocks of any considerable 

 size. It is rather a late bird of passage, probably because its 

 breeding grounds are situated in the high north above the 

 latitude of the Arctic Circle. It begins to cross the Mediterranean 

 in March, and continues to do so until the middle of May, 

 which latter month and the end of April is the time of its 

 appearance on our coasts. The young birds begin to arrive 

 from the north in August, and the return migration lasts through 

 September and October. Throughout that period it may be 

 observed irregularly on the British coasts. The principal haunts 

 of the Dusky Redshank are inland marshes and swamps, and the 

 banks and partially dry beds of rivers, but in the breeding season 

 it affects more wooded localities, bogs, and open parts of the 

 northern forests, sometimes at considerable distances from water. 

 In its habits it does not differ very much from its allies. It both 

 runs and flies quickly, often wades, and is said to swim readily 

 with a bobbing motion of the head. It is equally as shy as the 

 Common Redshank, just as noisy, but nothing near so social or 

 gregarious at any time. The note of the Dusky Redshank is 

 described by Naumann as tyuit, and by Wolley as tjeuty. This 

 note is most persistently uttered when the haunts of the bird are 

 intruded, and it is said the Finnish hunters have a great antipathy 

 to this species, because its noisy cries disturb the game they are 

 stalking. The food of this species is composed of worms, 

 insects, and their larvse, crustaceans, snails, the ova of fish and 

 frogs, and various ground fruits and berries. 



Nidification. — The only British naturalist who has ever 

 written an account of the nidification of the Dusky Redshank 

 from his own observations is John Wolley. This great field 

 naturalist was the first to bring the eggs of the Dusky Redshank 

 before British ornithologists, and an account of his important 

 discoveries, with accurate figures of the eggs he obtained, were 

 published in Hewitson's charming work on the Eggs of British 

 Birds. He found that this species arrived at its summer quarters 

 as soon as the ground was free from snow, and that it began to 

 breed almost at once. He remarked that its favourite nesting 

 places were in the open parts of the forest, not necessarily 

 near water, and especially in places where the trees had 



