OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 237 



Habits. — Except during the period of its migration the Dusky Redshank is 

 rarely seen on the coast, and it is only on 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 are the 

 dates of its appearance on our coasts. The young with a few old 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 Eedshank 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 Eedshank, just as noisy, but nothing near so social or gregarious at 

 any time. The note of the Dusky Eedshank 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 cry disturbs the game they are stalking. The food 

 of this Eedshank is composed of worms, insects and their larvae, crustaceans, 

 snails, the ova of fish and frogs, and various ground fruits and berries. 



Nidification. — The only British naturalist who has ever compiled an 

 account of the nidification of the Dusky Eedshank from his own observations is 

 John Wolley. This great field naturalist was the first to bring the eggs of the 

 Dusky Eedshank 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 been burnt and the vegetation was scanty. 

 Even here the Dusky Eedshank was by no means a common bird, being so thinly 

 scattered up and down the country that a few pairs only could be met with during 

 the course of the day. He found the nests generally on rising ground, near the 

 tops 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 



