Redshank should rather be attributed to restlessness of disposition, which is even manifested when the bird
is on the wing; for not more than a moment does a flock present the same appearance. I t is now a round
ball, next instant shoots out like a sky-rocket, appears in single file, and, after assuming every imaginable
form, perhaps rolls itself into a ball again, the whole being done with equal rapidity and grace, whether it
rises high into the air or sweeps the surface o f the sea. Its varied action on the ground is very pleasing, and
the nodding of the head is often quite grotesque; indeed, a t Roundstone or Connemara, where the bird is
numerous, it is commonly known by the name of ‘ Shake, on account of this habit.
“ Every month in the year the Redshank may be seen about our shores, though in the breeding-season not
more than one will be met with for a hundred at other times, Little flocks, as well as single birds and pairs,
occur on the coast in the height o f summer. I saw flocks o f them on the 20th and 21st o f Ju n e 1832, about
some of the low rocky islets in Strangford Lough; and our boatman stated that the Redshanks breed on some
of the islands every year, and that they find their nests, containing three or four eggs each, on the gravelly
or shingly beach. Among inland localities they breed in the Bog of Allen, and near Mountainstown, in the
county of Meath, as numbers annually do in moory swamps about Lough Conn and on the banks o f the river
Mayo, in the county of that name.
“ Naturalists, treating of this species as a British bird, seem to consider that all the Redshanks frequenting
the shore are bred in the country. They describe it'a s on the coast in autumn and winter, and retiring
inland to breed, without, so far as I have observed, alluding to any migration northward of Great
Britain for that purpose. Of the numbers, however, that are on the Irish coast the vast majority must have
been brought up in more northern latitudes.’ ^—T h o m p s o n , Birds o f Ireland, vol. ii. pp. 2 0 2 et seq.
“ Grateful to the ear as the melody of the Song-Thrush when heard from the branches of the yet leafless
trees,” says Mr. Stevenson, “ or the first whistle.of the Stone Curlew and the R inged Plover in their desolate
haunts on the warrens and ‘ breck ’- lands, is the scream of the Redshank in the early spring, just returned to
its summer haunts amidst the broads and marshes. In such localities, in very mild seasons, they may be
heard as early as the middle of February, but are more generally seen in pairs about the beginning o f March,
when their nervous actions and swift jerking flight, added to their incessant and clamorous cries, enliven the
dreariest waste o f marshy ground. It is noticeable also that, in the breeding-season, the male Redshank has
a ‘ song k of its own, quite as much as the Ringed Plover or the Common S n ip e .. More than once too, in the
early spring, have I seen the male bird, as Mr. Lubbock describes it, ‘ pirouetting ’ on a gatepost, now running
quickly along the top rail, calling loudly to its mate, now bowing and fluttering like an amorous pigeon,
and less mindful of danger than at any other time. The first eggs are usually laid by the middle of April,
and are so artfully concealed that, unless their construction is known, many might pass unnoticed in a very
small space. A hollow is formed in the centre o f a tuft o f grass, part of which, trodden down, forms the
only lining, whilst the remainder, arching over as it were a t the top, effectually conceals the eggs from view;
and as the bird enters and leaves it from the side, and the grasses are either drawn or fall naturally over the
openings, the little runs thus made in the' surrounding herbage are the only guides to its whereabouts. I
have examined several of these singular evidences of instinctive wisdom, and have always found four to be the
full complement of eggs, laid in a slight hollow, with their small ends inwards.
“ D uring incubation, and more especially when the young are hatched, the parent birds become even more
difficult o f approach, and leaving their nests, like Lapwings, on the first alarm, fly screaming round the
intruder, their anxiety being evinced by strange aerial evolutions.”
For some very interesting details respecting the actions o f the birds under these circumstances I must
refer my readers to Mr. Stevenson’s valuable jjj Birds o f Norfolk,’ vol. ii., from which the above extract
was taken.
Mr. W. Vincent Legge, in his ‘ Oological Notes from South-east Essex,’ remarks that the eggs of the
Redshank appear to “ vary much in character.” :! They are mostly of an ochre-yellow o r greenish yellow
ground, with bluish grey spots, and then blotched all over, especially a t the larger end, with sepia. One
clutch had the ground greenish white, with minute specks of brown over the whole surface, and large
blotches and clouds of sepia round the larger e n d ; these were much pointed, and the shells very thin.
The summer-plumage of the Redshank differs very considerably from that of winter. At the former
season the body is strongly spotted and marked with black, while at the latter the upper surface is of a nearly
uniform tint, and the under surface is much whiter. During flight a W-shaped mark produced by the white
tips of the primaries and secondaries shows very conspicuously.
The Plate represents a male and a female in summer plumage, and a young bird of the first autumn, all
of the natural size.