RED-SHANK, OR GAMBET. 155 



The length of the Yellow-Shanks, (or Yellow-Legs, as it is here 

 called) is about 10 inches or a little under. The bill is black, 1 inch 

 4 lines measured from above ; the tarsus 2 inches. Iris dark hazel. 

 Summit of the head and neck blackish-brown, edged with greyish- 

 white. Fore part of the back, scapulars, greater coverts, and tertia- 

 ries, blotched and barred with blackish-brown, and marked with 

 marginal triangular spots of brownish-white. Lower part of the 

 back, lesser coverts, and secondaries, clove-brown, narrowly edged 

 round with white. Primaries blackish-brown; the shaft of the first, 

 white. Two central pairs of tail feathers whitish-brown, the lateral 

 ones and the coverts white; the whole barred with blackish-brown, 

 but less distinctly on the coverts of the tail. Eye stripe, chin, and 

 under plumage, white, streaked on the neck, and barred on the sides 

 of the breast and belly with blackish-brown. — (male.) The win- 

 ter plumage, inclining to ash-color, as in the former. 



THE RED-SHANK, or GAMBET. 



(Totamis calidris, Bechst. Temm. ii. p. G43. Scolopax calidris, 

 Gmel. Lath. Ind. ii. p. 722. sp. 2-3. Tringa gamhctta, Gmel. 

 Syst. i. p. 671. sp. 3. Totanus n(Evius, Bkiss. Lath. Ind. ii. p. 728. 

 sp. 9. Chevalier aux pieds rouges, ou la Gamhette, Buff, Ois. vii. 

 p. 513. t. 28. PL Enlum, 845. [summer plumage.] Redshank, 

 Pen. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 172. No. 377.) 



Sp. Charact. — Cinereous olive-brown, spotted and barred with 

 black ; secondaries white for half their length ; rump white ; tail 

 dusky-white, barred with blackish-brown; legs, feet, and the 

 lower half of the bill bright red. — Winter j^lwmage mostly ashy- 

 brown ; below, except the throat and breast, white ; the feet pale 

 red. Young above, dusky-brown, the feathers principally border- 

 ed and indented with yellowish- white. Bill livid at the base, 

 brown towards the point ; feet and legs orange yellow. 



The Red-Shank or Gambet, seems to be from its rarity 

 little more than a mere straggler in the American continent, 

 as it is also probably in the marshes of China and Bengal. 

 It is common to many parts of Europe, is particularly fre- 

 quent in Holland, and not uncommon in England where it 



