158 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



shank, and distinguished by its bright yellow legs, and from the 

 Greenshank, which it approaches in size and plumage, by its 

 greyish brown, not white, rump, and its barred upper tail- 

 coverts and axillaries. Its dusky-brown rump differs from 

 that of the Yellowshank or "Summer Yellowlegs," which is 

 white, barred with brown. The bill is blackish, the irides 

 brown. Length, 14 ins. Wing, 775 ins. Tarsus, 2-5 ins. 



Yellowshank. Tringa flavipes (Gmelin). 



The American " Summer Yellowlegs " is a much smaller 

 bird, which Seebohm likens to a large Wood-Sandpiper. 

 Immature Redshanks, with their yellow legs, have been re- 

 ported as Yellowshanks, but the secondaries are dark, so that 

 no broad white wing border shows in flight ; a further dis- 

 tinction is that the axillaries are barred. The bird has 

 occurred on migration two or three times in England and once 

 on Fair Island. Length, 1075 ins. Wing, 6*4 ins. Tarsus, 

 2 ins. 



Marsh-Sandpiper. Tringa sfagnatilis (Bechst.). 



The Marsh-Sandpiper inhabits southern Siberia and some 

 parts of south-eastern Europe, but it has seldom wandered to 

 Britain. One was obtained in autumn at Tring, and three have 

 since been recorded from Sussex in spring and summer. Mr. 

 M. J. Nicholl, who knows the bird in Eg^-pt, says that it is 

 not unlike a small Greenshank with the call and flight of the 

 Wood-Sandpiper, from which it may be distinguished by its 

 paler colour and longer legs. It is a grey and greyish-brown 

 bird with white under parts in winter, but in summer the 

 breast is spotted and the upper parts show decided black 

 marks ; like the Greenshank, it has a slightly recurved bill, 

 greenish brown in colour, and the legs are dark greenish, the 

 irides brown. Length, io'5 ins. Wing, 5*3 ins. Tarsus, 2 ins. 



