426 SCOLOPACID^. 



Eedslianks at all, and calls them " Irish Eedslianks." On 

 the occasion to which I have referred, I saw at a distance 

 a largish bird feeding on a bank of mud close to an 

 embankment. Calculating as nearly as I could how many 

 paces off it was, I cautiously crept along the other side of 

 the embankment ; and when I had reached what I supposed 

 was the right spot, took off my hat and peeped over. 

 "Within a few yards of me was an unmistakeable Redshank, 

 pegging with his long beak into the mud, and aiding every 

 blow with an impetus of his whole body. In my own 

 mind I compared his movements with those of a Nuthatch, 

 with which I was quite familiar, and, the surface of the 

 mud being frozen hard, I imagined that the laborious 

 effort on the part of the bird was necessitated by the 

 hardness of the ground. Perhaps this may have been the 

 case ; but, whether or not, it is clear enough that the bird 

 does, when occasion requires it, lend the weight of his 

 l3ody to the effort of his beak in searching for food. I 

 should add that I did not know, at the time, that any 

 similar occurrence had been recorded. 



The food of the Eedshank consists of worms, marine 

 insects, and any other animal matter which abounds on 

 the sea-shore. It builds its nest of a few blades of grass 

 in the marshes, never among the shingle where that of the 

 Einged Plover is j)laced, but under a shrub, (popularly 

 known on the coast of l^orfolk by the name of "Eose- 

 mary,'') the Sucedafruticosa, Slirubby Sea Elite, of botanists. 

 It lays four eggs, which are considered delicate eating. 



GEEEIS" SANDPIPEE. 



TOTANUS OCHROPUS. 



Upper plumage olive-brown, Avith greenish reflections, spotted with whitish and 

 diisky ; lower plumage white ; tail white, the middle feathers barred with 

 dusky towards the end, the two outer feathers almost entirely white ; bill 

 dasky above, reddish beneath ; feet greenish. Length nine and a half inches. 

 Eggs whitish green, spotted with brown. 



This bird, which derives' its name from the green tinge of 

 its plumage and legs, must be reckoned among the rarer 



