396 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



C. F. Archibald, we observed an exceptionally large number of 

 these birds flying together ; exceptional, be it understood, on 

 the N.W. coast of England. After waiting about four hours 

 we saw the whole channel covered by the flowing tide. Nearly 

 all the Redshanks in the neighbourhood seemed to have collected 

 in the main flock, composed of about a hundred individuals, 

 though a few small ' strings ' were also present. On the 1 7th 

 of the same month we noticed a flight of forty Redshanks 

 coming down to feed on the wet ooze in Walney Channel as 

 the tide left the estuary. Yet on October 20, 1891, I only 

 saw two Redshanks in the same locality. But though the 

 Redshank is generally plentiful in winter, only a single pair 

 usually nests upon Walney Island. The majority of those seen 

 in autumn are immigrants. A pair or two nest on the marshes 

 of the Ravenglass estuary, but nowhere else on the coast-line 

 until you reach the upper marshes of the English Solway, on 

 which many pairs breed. Dr. Heysham considered the Redshank 

 1 a very scarce bird in Cumberland/ a remark from which we 

 are bound to infer that it did not at all events breed on Rock- 

 liffe marsh at that time in the comparative plenty of the last 

 thirty years. I have passed many pleasant hours on these 

 marshes listening to the loud piping cries of these devoted 

 birds, which betoken their parental anxiety with ear-piercing 

 solicitude ; but never did I more thoroughly enjoy the wild 

 charm of their company than on the 6th of May 1890. For 

 once the dead level of the estuary was transformed into a 

 scene of weird beauty. A brilliant afternoon had become 

 marred by the unmistakeable appearances of an approaching 

 tempest. Columns of dense black thunderclouds hung menac- 

 ingly in long festoons over the upper part of the marsh, above 

 which the Redshanks wheeled restlessly to and fro, their white 

 breasts glancing like silver against the swart and ominous back- 

 ground. The Redshanks assemble on this breeding-ground in 

 March, and lay their eggs from April onwards, though more 

 liable to delay that operation in the event of an untoward 

 season than is the Dunlin. All the nests that I have ever 

 seen were hollowed out in tussocks of grass. The care which 

 the sitting bird takes to draw together the grass stems when 



