GREENSHANK. 485 



l)ourhoocl, flies round the place of its nest, now wheeling ofl" 

 to a distance, again advancing towards you, and at intervals 

 alighting by the edge of the lake, when it continues its cries, 

 vibrating its body all the while. I once found a nest of 

 this bird in the island of Harris. It was at a considerable 

 distance from the water, and consisted of a few fragments of 

 heath and some blades of grass, placed in a hollow cavity 

 scraped in the turf in an exposed place. The nest, in fact, 

 resembled that of the Golden Plover, the Curlew, or the 

 Lapwing." 



Since then nests of the Greenshank have been found in 

 many parts of the mainland of Scotland, and Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown informs the Editor that its breeding-range, which 

 is extending, comprises portions of Caithness, Sutherland, 

 Pioss, Inverness, Argyle, and the north of Perthshire. Saxby 

 states that on the 31st May, 1871, he flushed the bird off 

 four eggs in Shetland, and saw others. 



On the Continent the breeding-range of the Greenshank 

 extends through Norway, Sweden, Northern Russia, and 

 Asiatic Siberia, as far as the morasses on the slopes of the 

 Stanowoi Mountains, where Middendorff observed the bird. 

 It is very doubtful if it breeds in Denmark or any part of 

 Northern Germany, and in the rest of Europe it is only 

 known as a more or less regular migrant. Many individuals 

 winter on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean and 

 in Northern Africa, whilst others continue tueir course along 

 both sides of that continent as far as Cape Colony and 

 Natal, striking off to Mauritius. It is a winter visitor to 

 Asia Minor, and in Turkestan Severtzoft" says that it breeds 

 up to an elevation of 4,000 feet. On migration it traverses 

 Central Asia, and, visiting India and the islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago, it pushes on to Norfolk Island and 

 Australia, where it is generally distributed. From Eastern 

 Siberia it visits China, Japan, and the Kurile Islands. In 

 America, Audubon obtained three specimens at Sand Cay, 

 Florida, on the 28th May, 1832 ; and examples, said to be 

 from Buenos Ayres and Chili, are in the Leyden Museum. 



The situation of the nest of the Greenshank, as observed 



