100 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



resembles that bird in the barred colouring of its tail, so that 

 it might easily be confused with it, were it not for the fact that 

 the plumage does not show the distinct dark streaking of the god- 

 wit's upper parts, and that the bill is truly snipe-like and not 

 tapering, but bulging at the end. 



Extremely little is known about this bird, which has not 

 been found commonly anywhere ; it is supposed to breed in 

 Siberia, and a few specimens have been got in north-east Asia. 

 A few also have been obtained in our Indian Empire in the cold 

 weather, at intervals of many years. 



Jerdon seems to have got the first recorded specimen in the 

 Madras Market in 1844 ; and since then it has been obtained in 

 that of Calcutta by Blyth in 1847, and Hume in 1878; and near 

 this time Oates shot a pair in Lower Pegu. This bird has also 

 been killed in Assam, and is known to occur in China and as far 

 to the south-east as Borneo. But hardly anything is known 

 about it, which is the more to be wondered at, as its only near 

 relative, the so-called red-breasted snipe {Blacrorhamphus griseus) 

 of America, is well known to shore-gunners there, and has even 

 strayed to the British Islands. Among other birds of this group 

 only greenshanks and golden plover can be noted. 



Greenshank. 



Totanns glottis. Tlmtimma, Hindustani. 



The greenshank is not only the biggest, but much the best for 

 the table, of the various sandpipers or snippets, most of which are 

 contemptuously passed over by sportsmen as birds of no account ; 

 but as it is really good, and easily recognizable, it is worth men- 

 tioning here, especially as the front figure in Hume's plate of 

 Armstrong's yellowshanks might easily be taken for it. 



It] is a most graceful, elegant bird, with a straight, slender, 

 pointed bill, and greyish plumage with conspicuous white under- 

 parts and rump, which last, together with the nearly white tail, 

 is noticeable as it gets up with its characteristic shrill cry, 

 imitated by its native name in Hindustani ; the Bengali name 

 is Gotra. The legs are green and the bill black at the tip 



