BIRDS 399 



than in Scotland. Mr. Seebohm states that it arrives on the 

 British , coast at the end of April and beginning of May. Mr. 

 Harting says that it arrives on the coast of Sussex about May 9 . 

 Mr. Collett says that it arrives in southern Sweden in the last 

 half of May. These dates would suit a bird which breeds 

 among the bogs and upland lochs of northern Europe, where 

 frost often binds the earth until the beginning of June. But in 

 the north of Scotland I have seen the Greenshank on its 

 breeding-ground by April 11, and Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 

 Buckley consider that it usually takes up its summer quarters 

 in the middle of April. The exigencies of climate abundantly 

 explain this apparent discrepancy between the habits of the bird 

 in Scotland and elsewhere. Of its noisy habits when nesting, 

 particularly when the young are skulking in the heather, I hope 

 to speak more particularly on a future occasion. The young do 

 not leave the moss or moor or bog upon which they have been 

 reared until well feathered and strong of pinion ; but, when the 

 the proper moment comes, they follow the old birds to the river 

 or to the estuary where the latter have been in the habit of 

 feeding. After a few weeks' delay they commence their journey, 

 southward or westward bound. Most of our Waders appear to 

 perform their great journeys by night, but tides and the state 

 of the weather serve also to regulate their movements, so 

 diurnal migrations may occasionally be witnessed. On August 

 24th, 1889, I was smoking my pipe beside a small lough near 

 the Solway, contemplating the Coots and Mallard which chiefly 

 occupied the water, when I heard the shrill whistle of the 

 Greenshank, and, looking up into the east, I saw four of these 

 birds shooting down from the clouds, with the manifest inten- 

 tion of delaying their journey by a brief rest. They did not 

 descend abruptly, but wheeled briskly five or six times round 

 the lough before they proceeded to alight upon its sedgy margin. 

 It was not, perhaps, quite suited to supply what they wanted, 

 certainly next day they had gone on. Probably they only 

 desired to rest their wings and enjoy a wash before continuing 

 their travels. At all events, it was a pleasant incident, serving 

 to remind one how these swift fliers come hurrying to us 

 through cloudland, and, after a brief rest, steer their course 



