THE TRUE TATTLERS. 303 



Characters. — The Marsh Tattler is distinguished from the 

 Red-shanks by its smaller size, the wing scarcely exceeding 

 five inches. The outer tail-feathers are white, freckled with 

 brown on the outer web, but not barred as in the above-men- 

 tioned birds. 



Range in Great Britain. — The Hon. Walter Rothschild informs 

 me that he himself shot a specimen of a Marsh Sandpiper on 

 the Tring Reservoirs in October, 1887. He identified it from 

 Dresser's " Birds of Europe," and believes the identification to 

 have been correct. As, however, the specimen was burnt in a 

 fire, along with other valuable birds, he has been unable to 

 submit it to me for examination. 



Eange outside the British Islands. — The Marsh Green-shank oc- 

 curs throughout Southern Europe, across Central Asia to 

 Eastern Siberia, and migrates in winter to South Africa, the 

 Indian Peninsula, and the Moluccas as far as Australia. 



IV. THE YELLOW-SHANK. TOTANUS FLAVIPES. 



Scolopax flavipis^ Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 659 (1788). 

 Totanus flavipes, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 176 (1883); Saun- 

 ders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 480 (1883); Seebohm 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 136, pi. 32, fig. 8 (1885); Saunders, 

 Man. Brit. B. p. 599 (1889); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 xxiv. p. 431 (1896). 

 Adult in Winter Plumage. — General colour above uniform a'^hy- 

 brovvn, with obsolete white fringes to the feathers ; scapulars 

 like the back ; lower back and rump black, the feathers edged 

 with white ; upper tail-coverts white, the lateral ones with a few 

 irregular bars of black; lesser wing coverts blackish, fringed 

 with white; median and greater coverts brown, rather broadly 

 edged with white, and sub-marginally barred with black in an 

 interrupted manner ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills 

 blackish, the inner primaries and the secondaries browner, 

 fringed with white ; the long inner secondaries like the greater 

 coverts, and sub-marginally spotted with black ; tail-feathers 

 white, barred with black, the bars more numerous and distinct 

 on the outer webs, though closer together, and more broken on 

 the inner webs, which are mostly white for the basal half; the 

 centre feathers ashy towards the ends, with broad dusky bars ; 



