OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 235 



venturesome birds than the rest remain standing daintily poised on some little 

 hillock, or in the bed of the stream, often swaying their elegant bodies up and 

 down as if full of nervous excitement and undecided as to which course to follow, 

 to remain on the ground or join the noisy birds careering about high in air above 

 them. In southern districts the Eedshank begins to lay early in April, but in 

 the north of Scotland it is more than a month later, whilst in the Arctic regions 

 fresh eggs may be found up to the end of June. Numbers of pairs nest in close 

 proximity, and all through the breeding period parties of birds may be observed 

 feeding and flying together. The nest is well concealed, often placed beneath an 

 arched tuft of herbage, or in the centre of a hummock of grass, or under the 

 shelter of a bush or large weed. But little, if any, nest is made ; the site selected 

 is trampled into a little hollow, which may or may not be lined with a few scraps 

 of dry vegetable refuse. The eggs are four in number, ranging from pale to dark 

 buff in ground-colour, handsomely spotted and blotched with rich dark brown, and 

 underlying markings of paler brown and grey. Occasionally a few streaks occur. 

 They are pyriform in shape, and measure on an average 1"75 inch in length by 

 12 inch in breadth. Many eggs of this bird are gathered for the table during the 

 season. One brood only is reared in the year. Incubation is said by Naumann 

 to last from fourteen to sixteen days, but experiments have elicited the fact that 

 the eggs of this bird placed in an incubator did not hatch until the twenty- third 

 day. The parent birds adopt the usual alluring antics when their young are 

 threatened. As soon as the latter are safely reared a movement to the coasts is 

 made. 



Diagnostic Cliaracters — Totanus, with the lower back and rump 

 white, and the secondaries white, marbled with brown at the very base. Length, 

 10 to 11 inches. 



