976 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
autumn, when both old and young are on their jour- 
ney South from the very high northern latitudes, 
where they breed, generally within the arctic circle. 
‘The food of the Spotted Redshank appears to 
consist of small shell-fish, frog-spawn and aquatic 
insects of all descriptions, small frogs, beetles and 
worms, but no vegetable matter of any kind. 
This bird may be distinguished from the Common 
Redshank by the general colour of its plumage at 
various seasons: it is also rather larger in size, 
though perhaps more slender and elegant in shape ; 
the legs and toes are longer, but more slender in 
proportion, as is the beak. I have known a young 
Godwit mistaken for this species; but it may easily 
be distinguished from the Godwits by the upward 
turn of the beak in those birds, their larger size and 
thicker legs and toes. The following description is 
taken from a bird in my collection, shot at Teign- 
mouth, in Devonshire, in the autumn or winter, but 
as I never saw the bird in the flesh, and did not get 
it until the legs and beak had been coloured by the 
birdstuffer, I cannot say anything about their 
original colour. The top of the head, back of the 
neck, back and scapulars ash-grey, some of the 
feathers slightly margined with white; there is a 
streak of white from the base of the upper mandible 
over the eye; the space between the beak and the 
eye darkish ash-grey; the lesser wing-coverts are 
ash-grey, margined with white,—in some of the 
