Birds. 237 



miliar with the sounds made by a flock of sparrows when going to 

 roost late in the autumn and winter, — a combination of a number of 

 voices : very similar is the sound 1 am referring to, though individual 

 notes sound less shrilly, and have less of the chiding character about 

 them. When the tide has gone down, the large flocks break up into 

 the smaller groups of twenty or thirty, alluded to above. 



When the redshank " mobs " (the provincial phrase for its bold and 

 reckless approach to man in the breeding season) its flight is some- 

 what peculiar. It is slow, with regular beats of the wings ; and after 

 each pulsation you may notice that the wings are kept depressed for 

 a very perceptible space of time. 



The nests of the pewit gull* (Larus ridihimdus) and the oyster- 

 catcher {H(Bmatopus Ostralegus) are to be met with occasionally in 

 the same places with the redshank's ; and I have been amused at 

 times with the diverse habits of these birds when affected by the same 

 motives. I remember on one occasion I had found a gull's nest and 

 an oyster-catcher's within a few paces of each other, and had most 

 convincing testimony, from the distress evinced by two or three red- 

 shanks, that one of theirs, at least, was not far distant. The latter 

 conducted themselves after the manner I have endeavoured to de- 

 scribe ; the gulls hovered over my head, now and then making a stoop 

 at me, and almost brushing my hat with their wings, not making much 

 outcry ; but the oyster-catchers, though evidently watching my every 

 motion, kept at a distance, flying up and down a large creek that was 

 near, uneasily shifting their place if they happened to perch for a iew 

 moments, and uttering at short intervals their whistling note. 



A redshank or two may sometimes be seen among a flock of oxbirdsf 

 {Tringa alpina and cinclus), which they seem to accompany in their 

 flights for a short time ; but it may be accounted for by supposing 

 the companionship accidental ; both kinds of birds procuring their 

 food in similar places ; and that the same cause — sudden alarm for 

 instance — had caused them to take flight together. 



J. C. Atkinson. 



Halton, Berwick-on-Tweed, June, 1843. 



* The name of pewit-gull, given by Bewick as a synonyme of his black-headed 

 gull, is now almost universally abandoned for the latter name. — Ed. 



f This little bird is the dunlin and purre of Pennant, Montague and Bewick, all 

 these authors having considered it a distinct species when in the winter plumage ; 

 hence the double names of alpina and cinclus. M. Meyer, in order to avoid this 

 confusion, called the bird Tringa variabilis, and his nomenclature is followed by 

 Temminck, Selby, Gould, and J enyns.— Ed. 



