108 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



at the nesting site, or guarding the young. Tlie male 

 birds of the species are said to roam far from their mates 

 during the nesting season, and do not, as the Redshank, 

 take their share in the rearing of the brood. The Red- 

 shank too does not appear to frequent the same country as 

 does his relative of the green legs, for I did not see a single 

 one at any of the nesting sites of the Greenshank that I 

 visited. 



The peculiarity of the Greenshank in perching on trees 

 is well marked ; one of these birds will rarely alight on the 

 ground if a Scots pine is in the neighbourhood, and it 

 may well be owing to this habit that nesting sites with 

 a few pines scattered through them are chosen in prefer- 

 ence to treeless areas ; for it is in such pine-scattered 

 situations that the Greenshank nests not only in Scotland, 

 but through the whole of Northern Europe. 



It is curious that a northern nesting bird like the 

 Greenshank should find the winter in Great Britain too 

 inclement for it, yet such is the case. During August and 

 September numbers of the birds are seen on migration 

 throughout the country south of the Tweed, but I believe 

 that the south of Ireland is the only district where they 

 remain throughout the winter. 



Tlie first authenticated instance of the Greenshank 

 nesting in Scotland occurred about 1835, when Mac- 

 Gillivray found the eggs in Harris. Since then it has 

 been found in the Moray basin, and in several of the most 

 north-lying Scottish counties. Its nest has been dis- 

 covered in Skye and in the Hebrides, and also, it is said, 

 in the Shetlands. 



During its stay on the moorlands the food of the 

 Greenshank consists of worms, of beetles and insects, 

 with their larval forms, but in winter on the coast it may 

 feed on small fry of various kinds and on crabs and shrimps. 



If hard pressed, both old and young Greenshanks 



