388 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
IT have taken the following descriptions of the 
Greenshank in its summer and winter plumages 
from Meyer’s ‘British Birds,’ as I have not a 
specimen in my own collection from which to 
describe. In the summer plumage, “the top of the 
head, back of the neck, back and scapulars consist 
of dusky feathers, with paler edges; the longer 
feathers of the scapulars and tertials are black in 
the centre and regularly edged with a border of 
white spots; two narrow white bands are formed 
on the wings by the white tips of the feathers 
forming the greater wing-coverts; the feathers 
which cover the shoulders of the wings are liver- 
coloured; the rump is white; the upper tail-coverts 
have a dusky spot or bar on each feather near their 
tips, and the shafts are dusky; the tail is barred 
with dusky and greyish white; a dusky space 
between the beak and the eye extends in small 
spots over the cheek, and communicates with more 
numerous and larger drop-shaped dusky spots over 
the sides and upper part of the breast; the under 
parts are pure white from the chin to the vent; the 
base of the beak and the legs are bluish green; the 
claws and tip of the beak dusky; iris sepia.” 
Yarrell, however, describes “‘the legs and toes as 
olive-green. In winter the ground-colour of the 
upper parts, with the exception of the pure white 
rump, is a pale bluish ash; the top of the head, 
nape, cheeks, back and sides of the neck are spotted 
