136 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the upper-parts where the feathers are more mottled and the margins regularly 
edged with white. 
Nestling —Upper-surface brownish-grey with blackish-brown marking somewhat 
linearly arranged showing an obscure striped appearance ; a marked frontal streak 
and prominent loral stripe running through the eye; under-surface pure white ; 
legs and bill long. 
Nest.—A depression in the grass. 
Eggs —Clutch, four ; ground-colour pale stone, covered with very dark red 
blotches and underlying ones of lavender ; axis 48-50 mm., diameter 34. 
Breeding-season.—May, June. (Siberia.) 
Distribution and forms.—Throughout northern Europe and Asia, migrating 
southward in winter. Though many authorities have recognised the eastern form 
as differing in its paler plumage at the present time this appears to be ignored on 
account of lack of good series. 
Genus ILIORNIS. 
Iliornis Kaup, Skizz. Entwick.-Gesch. Nat. Syst., p. 156, (pref. April) 1829. Type (by 
monotypy): Totanus stagnatilis Bechstein. 
Medium Totanine Waders with long straight slender bills, very long wings, 
very long legs with long exposed tibia, and tails of medium length. 
The culmen is long and slender, with the tip of the upper mandible hard and 
not expanded but turned down over the lower mandible; the grooves in both 
mandibles are short and less than half the length of the culmen. The wings are 
long and pointed, the first primary longest. 
The metatarsus is very long and regularly scutellate both in front and behind 
and equal to, or more than twice the length of, the middle toe ; it is also more than 
one-third the length of the wing. The exposed tibia is very long, equalling the 
middle toe in length. The tail is a little longer than the metatarsus. The toes are 
long and slender with a distinct web between the outer and the middle one, and a 
scarcely noticeable web between the middle and inner toe. Hind-toe present. 
94. Iliornis stagnatilis—LITTLE GREENSHANK. 
Gould, Vol. VI., pl. 37 (pt. xxxim.), Dec. Ist, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 2, pl. 149, May 
2nd, 1913. 
Totanus stagnatilis Bechstein, Ornith. Taschenb. Deutschl., pt. 1., p. 292, 1803: Germany. 
Trynga guinetta Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., Vol. II., p. 195, 1827: Russia. 
Limosa horsfieldvi Sykes, Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1832, p. 163, Nov. 22nd: Dukhun, 
India. 
Totanus lathamii Gray and Hardwicke, Illus. Ind. Zool., Vol. II., pl. 51, fig. 3 (? May 3rd), 
1834: Cawnpore, India. 
Totanus gracilis Brehm, Vollstind. Vogelfang, p. 313, 1855 (pref. Nov. 8th, 1854): north 
East Africa. 
Iliornis stagnatilis addenda Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 7, p. 126, Jan. 28th, 1915: 
Northern Territory. 
DisTRIBUTION.—Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 
Adult male in breeding-plumage—Mantle and back ash-grey with dark shaft- 
lines and arrowhead black blotches ; some of the long scapulars irregularly marked 
and barred with black, the long innermost secondaries similarly marked; lesser 
and greater wing coverts dark brown, the latter tipped with white ; some of the 
median coverts blotched with black like the back ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts 
and quills dark brown, the shaft of the outer primary white, the inner primaries 
paler and margined with white like the secondaries ; lower back and rump pure 
white ; upper tail-coverts and middle tail-feathers white, barred with brown, the 
