6o4 SPOTTED REDSHANK. 



In summer this species inhabits the northern portions of Scan- 

 dinavia and Russia ; the birds which intend to nest there arriving 

 in May, though migrants have been noticed passing northwards 

 over Heligoland as late as June 17th. It crosses the Continent by 

 several routes, its winter quarters commencing in the basin of the 

 Mediterranean and extending to Cape Colony. In Asiatic Siberia 

 it is somewhat irregularly distributed, but Dr. von Middendorff 

 found it breeding on the Boganida, while eastward it ranges to 

 Kamschatka ; and during the cold season it visits Japan, China, 

 Burma, India &c. 



For details respecting the nidification British ornithologists are in- 

 debted to Wolley, who observed the Spotted Redshank in Finland 

 in 1854. It appears to choose the driest situations, such as the tops 

 of long hills covered with scattered timber — many hundreds of yards 

 from any marsh ; and there, in some slight depression among the 

 scanty vegetation, it deposits towards the end of May its 4 eggs, which 

 vary in ground-colour from a yellowish-olive to a beautiful sea-green, 

 and are blotched with several shades of brown and black : average 

 measurements i'85 by 1-25 in. The bird sits very close, its white 

 back being conspicuous as it crouches with its neck drawn in, and 

 on rising it flies round with an occasional ijeuty^ or stands upon the 

 top of a neighbouring tree, showing the full length of its slender legs, 

 neck and bill. It becomes very demonstrative when the young are 

 hatched, and probably carries them down to the marsh, as they are 

 found there while still small. The food consists of worms, beetles 

 and other insects, univalves &c. ; chiefly obtained near fresh water, 

 to which, as already observed, this species is far more partial than 

 the Common Redshank. 



The adult male in summer (figured in the background) has the 

 general plumage of a sooty-black hue, excepting the white rump 

 and the barred upper tail-coverts ; the female is rather larger and 

 often has a white chin, the under parts being paler and more mottled; 

 bill nearly black, red at the base of the lower mandible ; legs and 

 feet claret- red. Average length 13 ; wing 6 '6 in. After the autumn 

 moult the upper parts are chiefly ash-coloured, more mottled with 

 white than in the Common Redshank, while the tail-feathers are 

 much darker ; the secondaries are thickly barred with dusky on 

 both w^ebs ; the neck is ash-colour, the under parts are dull white, 

 and the axillaries white. The young have the upper surface tinged 

 with brown, the under parts clouded with ash-grey, and the legs 

 orange-yellow. 



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