234 Birds. 



they are. I mean the salterns or saltings, i. e. tracts of land without 

 the sea wall, and covered by the sea at high water, more or less com- 

 pletely, according to the state of the tide. These are intersected by 

 multitudes of rills and creeks,* in such manner that, except by fol- 

 lowing the sheep-paths, it is difficult to make progress in any direc- 

 tion, without crossing a rill, for a space of a hundred yards, and 

 almost impossible to proceed fifty in the same straight line. 



I have spent many hours, at all seasons of the year, on these 

 salterns, and among the birds w^hich are to be found in such places 

 one of the most common is the redshank [Totaniis Calidris, Selby). 

 When the tide has gone down, it is generally to be found in various 

 parts of the creeks, in the bottom of which a small stream of muddy 

 water moves along. Here, by taking advantage of the windings of 

 the creek, and showing yourself as little as possible, you may surprise 

 these wary and vigilant birds, and, at the least, shoot at them, if such 

 be your object ; but it does not follow as a matter of course that you 

 will kill them, even supposing your aim to have been correct. Fre- 

 quently have I, when thinking myself sure of my bird, on pulling the 

 trigger, seen it dart perpendicularly upw^ards before I was myself 

 aware that the charge was ignited, so that when my shot '' tolcf'' in 

 the mud below them, they were flying in safety eight or ten feet 

 higher than they were when my sight was taken. Its quick eye must 

 have caught the almost imperceptible flash which issues from the 

 cap, — as is certainly the case with some of the w^ater birds : I may 

 mention the great northern diver iColymhus glacialis), the crested J 

 grebe [Podiceps cristatus), the teal {Anas Crecca), &c. It is possible " 

 the motion of the hammer may be seen too, but I think that that of 

 itself is insufficient to make the bird deviate from its line of flight. 

 I am not aware that any other bird has this habit : those I have re- 

 ferred to as escaping from the shot on seeing the flash, do it by quit- 

 ting one element for another, — the air for the water, — and not by 

 deviating from their course on the wing. As may be supposed, this 

 took place more commonly when a flint gun was used, but it was by 

 no means invariable even in that case. 



While the tide is at its height, and their feeding grounds conse- 

 quently deep under water, they sit, unless disturbed, on some small 

 temporary island of a few feet or paces in diameter, formed by a part 

 of the salterns which happens to be of a higher level than the rest ; 



* The creeks are deep muddy arteries^ as it were, to the arm of the sea, whence 

 they proceed, varying much in width ; the rills arc the veins, much narrower than 

 the creeks. 



