THE TRUE TATTLERS. 295 



THE TRUE TATTLERS. GENUS TOTANUS. 



Tofajius, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. ii. p. 282 (1803). 



Type, T. calidris (Linn.). 



The representatives of this genus are distinguished from the 

 foregoing by their shorter bill, which never exceeds the length 

 of the tail, though the culmen is longer than the middle toe 

 and claw. The bill is nearly straight, but with the tip slightly 

 curved downwards, and the tarsus is longer than the middle 

 toe and claw. The outer toe is joined to the middle one by a 

 basal membrane, but the inner toe has only a slight web, and 

 is cleft nearly to the base. 



Five species of the genus Tota?ms are known, of which three 

 are found in the Old World, viz., T. fuscus, T. calidris, and T. 

 oiagnati/is, while America has two species, T. melanoleucus and 

 T, flavipes. 



I. THE SPOTTED RED-SHANK. TOTANUS FUSCUS. 

 {Plate XC.) 

 Scolopax fusca^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 243 (1766). 

 Totanus fuscus, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 328 (1852) ; Dresser, B. 

 Eur. viii. p. 165, pis. 568, 569 (1875); B. O. U. List Brit. 

 B. p. 176(1 883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 474 

 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 145, pi. 32, figs. 

 4-6 (1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 603 (1889); 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 409 (1896). 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage.— General colour above sooty- 

 black, the head uniform ; the hind-neck varied with white 

 fringes and spots on the feathers, many of which are barred 

 with brown ; scapulars also blackish, with broader white spots 

 and edges ; wing-coverts blackish, edged with white, and 

 notched with white on both webs ; the greater coverts more 

 distinctly barred and notched with white ; bastard-wing, pri- 

 mary-coverts, and primaries bronzy-brown, the latter white on 

 the inner web and freckled with brown ; the secondaries barred 

 with white and brown, the brown bars irregular in shape, and 

 producing a mottled appearance ; the innermost secondaries 

 bronzy-brown, notched with white or brownish-white on both 

 webs ; the lower back pure white ; rump and upper tdil-CQverts 



