0 
REDSHANK. 
commonly selects the centre of a tuft of rushes * about sixteen or twenty inches in height in which to 
scrape out the small circular depression that forms its cradle : either a few blades of soft dead grass are 
added, or the weaker strands are broken down and thus supply a scanty lining. The long rank marsh-grass 
that grows about the roots of the surrounding rushes frequently meets over the eggs and forms a covering that 
elFectually conceals them in the absence of the parent bird. Unless carefully examined, it is difficult to 
ascertain where the bird enters or leaves the nest, so closely do the strands of waving grass entwine above 
the space : at times a track may he detected among the grass and herbage ; but doubtless the bird is able to 
force its way through the unresisting covering without leaving the slightest trace. Though apparently 
concealed so as to defy detection, scarcely a nest escapes the practised eye of the marshman, who has learned 
his trade hy working every spring to supply the market. 
In the neighhourhood of the hroads the young seldom remain long on the dry portions of the marshes on 
which the nests were placed. When newly hatclied, the old birds lead them to the slades, where the shelter 
of the reeds and sedge and the boggy nature of the soil afford security from their numerous persecutors. 
The over-anxiety of their parents, however, invariably betrays their place of concealment. Where Peewits 
and Redlegs breed in company, both species generally unite in mobbing the intruder on their domain. A 
passing Crow is invariably assailed, and the visit of the Moor-Buzzard to their haunts at once attracts every 
bird in the neighbourhood. On the 17th and 18th of May, 1883, I watched an immature Marsh-Harrier 
that was hovering about the marshes near Hickling Broad, followed for at least twenty minutes on each 
occasion hy a noisy swarm of from fifty to sixty Peewits and Redlegs. As they swept screaming round, the 
IlaAvk at times was almost hidden hy the wings of the excited throng ; he appeared, how^ever, to pay not the 
slightest attention to the clamour : two or three times he alighted for a moment among the reeds, but I was 
unable to ascertain if any prey was secured. 
1 he usual call-note of the Redshank is too well known to need descrijition ; though the birds are most 
clamorous in the breeding-season, their warning cries may be heard at all times of the year on the mud- 
flats and along the shore. I have hitherto seen no mention of a singular habit in which this species 
indulges during the breeding-season after the young are hatched : occasionally the whole body resorting to one 
part of the marshes will simultaneously give vent to a succession of loud and prolonged calls, the cabined 
notes forming a most singular chime, which is continued for a minute or more at a time. 
Early in June 1881 my attention was attracted by a particularly dark-plumaged Redshank, whose loud 
notes were heard on every occasion when I passed a thick patch of reeds on Pleasure Uillsf, a small island on 
Ilicklmg Broad. The position the bird took up was strange— invariably perching, on the approach of the 
boat, on a point just level with the top of the highest reeds. Considering it impossible that one of the 
stems oiPhraomites communis could sustain his weight, I landed and discovered that a thorn hush had been 
driven by ice or floods on the hill, and one small twig stretching upwards formed the observatory from which 
he gave warning to his hrood of approaching danger : while returning to the boat, the downy young, a day or 
two out of the shell, were detected attempting to escape among the roots of the sedge. A week later 
I discovered that the old bird (easily recognized by his eonspicuous colouring) had shifted his quarters, and with 
his brood was domiciled on Rush Hills, a marsh on the lleigham side of the broad, one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred yards from the nearest point of Pleasure Hills. I was at first under the impression 
* A tuft of grass, I perceive, is mentioned by one .vriter as the spot in Avhich the Iledshank places its nest in the Norfolk marshes. According 
to my own expenence, it is almost invariably in rushes that the bird breeds in this locality. There is no denying the fact that a few blades of rank 
grass surround the spot selected; but this coarse vegetation springs up through all the beds and tufts of rushes. Short and stunted marsh-plants 
and glasses may be resorted to in some of the wild northern glens, but at least nine nests out of every ten that have come under my notice in the 
broad-distncts of East ISortolk were constructed among rushes. ^ 
t So called on account of the water-fairs (or frolics as they are locally termed) being formerly held on this part of the broad. 
