178 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



In Ireland, it is a regular visitor in autumn, 

 remaining all through the winter and spring. 



The average weight of a Greenshank is about that 

 of a Golden Plover, i.e., from 8 oz. to 10 oz., and 

 it is almost as good a bird for the table. I have 

 shot many out of the marsh-dykes in Sussex, Suffolk, 

 and Norfolk, and several at different times so near 

 London as Kingsbury Reservoir, and the river Brent. 



DUSKY REDSHANK. Totanus fuscus (Linnaeus). 

 PL 20, figs. 3, 4. Length, 12-5 in. ; bill, 2-3 in. ; wing, 

 6*75 in. ; tarsus, 2-25 in. ; bare part of tibia, Po in. 



A spring and autumn migrant to England and 

 Scotland ; a rare visitant to Ireland, where it has 

 been procured in Co. Down, Belfast Bay (Thomp- 

 son), in Co. Mayo (Warren, Field, ^oy. 11, 1876; 

 Zool, 1887, p. 468 ; 1889, p. 35), in Co. Kildare, 

 near Sallins, in Sept. 1886 (Dubl. Mus.), in Co. 

 Dublin (Williams, Zool, 1891, p. 35), and in Cork 

 Harbour in Dec. 1898 (Barrington). 



My experience of this bird is that it is commoner 

 in England during the autumn migration than it is 

 in spring. In autumn, when the dorsal plumage is 

 grey and the under parts white, it looks not unlike a 

 common Redshank, but somewhat bigger, and higher 

 on the legs, which are then lemon - coloured. In 

 spring, the dorsal plumage is marbled black and 

 white, and the under parts uniformly black, which 

 gives it a very striking appearance ; the legs at that 

 season are claret colour. I have only once met with 

 it in this plumage in England, namely, in the month 



