156 WADING BIRDS. 



breeds, but seems generally to prefer the milder to the cold 

 climates. It is fomid, however, as high as Finmark, inhab^ 

 its Scandinavia, also Iceland, as well as Siberia, and in the 

 course of its extensive wanderings, in autumn, it has been 

 met with in the frozen sea, between Asia and America, in 

 the inclement latitude of 69i°. It was not seen, how- 

 ever, by the late scientific northern navigators ; and it is 

 only given on the authority of Pennant, and from a spe- 

 cimen of the bird from Hudson's Bay, now in the British 

 Museum. 



Like the preceding, to which the present is related, it 

 breeds in marshes, and on the verge of large pools, where it 

 chiefly dwells ; laying 4 eggs of an olivaceous-brown, spot- 

 ted and blotched with black, the marks most numerous at 

 the large end. When disturbed in their breeding retreats, 

 they fly around the nest circularly in the manner of the 

 Lapwing, uttering an incessant shrill whistle, and like the 

 Tell-Tale are so vigilant, noisy, and jealous of their breeding 

 retreat, as to be very troublesome to the sportsman, alarming 

 his game, and defeating his pursuit. When wounded, like 

 many other waders, they appear to swim with facility ; and 

 the Common Sandpiper ( Totaims hypohucos) has been 

 known to dive at the approach of a hawk. They live prin- 

 cipally upon larvae, and soft bodied insects, as well as worms, 

 and sometime prey upon minute shell-fish. 



The Red-Shank is about 11 to 12 inches in length. Bill above, 

 about 1 inch 8 lines. Length of the tarsus 2 inches. — Winter plu- 

 inage of the adult. Head, back of the neck, top of the back, scapu- 

 lars and wing coverts ashy-brown, the color deeper along the shafts. 

 Throat, sides of the head, fore part of the neck and breast greyish- 

 white, with dusky lines along the shafts. Rump, vent and abdomen, 

 white. Tail feathers banded with white, and broad zig-zags of 

 dusky. Iris brown. Legs and feet pale red. Half of the bill red, 

 the rest black. 



