REDSHANK. 211 



side it feeds on soft insects, and portions of weeds and 

 mosses. 



The nest of the Redshank is placed on the ground in a 

 slight hollow, or on a bundle of dry flags. It is lined with a 

 few grasses, and situated mostly very near the edge of a bog or 

 swamp. It is not difficult to find the nest of the Redshank 

 when breeding, for the birds almost invariably fly round the 

 intruder, uttering their alarm-note incessantly. The eggs are 

 never more than four in number, and marked as represented 

 in our plate. In fourteen or sixteen days the young are 

 hatched and run off the nest, following their parent as soon 

 as they are dry, and learn from her the manner of seeking 

 their food. The male bird cares no more for his young 

 brood after they are hatched. The young birds are very 

 soon fledged and able to take care of themselves. 



The size of the adult Redshank is nearly twelve inches ; 

 the expanse of the wings twenty-one inches ; the wing, from 

 the carpus to the tip, six inches three lines ; the tail two 

 inches and a half : the tail consists of twelve rounded 

 feathers, the central feathers, being longer than the outer, give 

 the tail a fan-like shape. The beak resembles that of the 

 spotted redshank, and measures one inch ten lines in 

 length ; the basal half is red, and the tip dusky black. The 

 iris is dusky brown, the eyelids and orbits white ; the legs are 

 clear vermilion-red. The tarsus measures two inches, the 

 naked part of the tibia nearly one : the claws are black. 



In adult summer plumage a white streak extends from the 

 base of the upper mandible over the eye. The head, nape, 

 back, scapulars, and wing-coverts are cinereous brown, with 

 olive reflections ; the shafts of the feathers black: those of the 

 scapulars and greater coverts have some small transverse 

 dusky markings. Rump white. The sides of the head, neck, 

 and all the under-parts white ; the centre of each feather 

 marked with a large dusky spot : on the under tail-coverts and 



