230 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



been burnt, and the vegetation was scanty. Even here the Dusky 

 Redshank was by no means a common bird, being so thinly 

 scattered up and down the country that only a few pairs 

 could be met with during the course of the day. He found the 

 nests generally on rising ground, near the top of hills, in open 

 clearings amongst the pines where the ground was clothed with 

 heath and reindeer moss. They were mere hollows in the 

 ground, lined with a few dead " needles " of the Scotch fir. In 

 these slight nests four eggs are laid at the end of May, or in 

 higher latitudes than Lapland, towards the middle of June. They 

 vary from pale brown to pale green in ground colour, handsomely 

 and heavily blotched and spotted with rich dark brown, and 

 with underlying markings of pale brown and ink-gray. They are 

 pyriform in shape, and measure on an average i'85 inch in 

 length by i'3 inch in breadth. Wolley remarked that the 

 parent bird sat closely, although its white rump was very con- 

 spicuous as it brooded over the eggs with its long neck drawn in. 

 When flushed it either ran for a little way before taking wing, or 

 flew into the air at once, and wheeled round and round, uttering 

 its note at intervals ; but sometimes it perched on the top of a 

 tree near by. As soon as the young were hatched he found that 

 the old bird became even more demonstrative, sometimes 

 standing close to him, snapping its bill and nodding its head. 

 Although it sits so closely, it is said to be very wary in returning 

 to its nest. Only one brood is reared in the season ; and as soon 

 as the young are hatched they are conducted to the neighbouring 

 marshes. 



Diagnostic Characters. — T,) tames, with the secondaries 

 white, barred on both webs with gray. In breeding plumage 

 the head, neck, and underparts are very dark slate-gray. Length, 

 12 to 13 inches. 



