GREENSHANK. 551 



frequenting pools of brackish water at the head of the sand- 

 fords, and the shallow margins of bays and creeks. Its habits 

 are very similar to those of the Redshank, with which it as- 

 sociates in autumn. It is extremely shy and vigilant, inso- 

 much that one can very seldom shoot it, unless after it has 

 deposited its eggs. Many individuals remain during the 

 summer, when they are to be found by the lakes in the in- 

 terior, of which the number in Uist, Harris, and Lewis is as- 

 tonishing. At that season it is very easily discovered, for 

 when you are perhaps more than a quarter of a mile distant, 

 it rises into the air with clamorous cries, alarming all the 

 birds in its neighbourhood, flies round the place of its nest, 

 now wheeling off to a distance, again advancing towards you, 

 and at intervals alighting by the edge of the lake, when it 

 continues its cries, vibrating its body all the while. I once 

 found a nest of this bird in the island of Harris. It was at 

 a considerable distance from the water, and consisted of a few 

 fragments of heath and some blades of grass, placed in a hol- 

 low cavity scraped in the turf, in an exposed place. The 

 nest, in fact, resembled that of the Golden Plover, the Cur- 

 lew, or the Lapwing. The eggs, placed with their narrow 

 ends together, Avere four in number, pyriforni, larger than 

 those of the Lapwing, and smaller than those of the Golden 

 Plover, equally pointed with the latter, but proportionally 

 broader and more rounded at the larger end than either. 

 The dimensions of one of them, still remaining with me, are 

 two inches exactly, by one inch and three eighths : the 

 ground colour is a very pale yellowish green, sprinkled all 

 over with irregular spots of dark brown, intermixed with 

 blotches of light purplish grey, the spots, and especially the 

 blotches, more numerous on the larger end. Although in 

 summer these birds may be seen in many parts of the is- 

 lands, they are yet very rare, a pair being to be met with 

 only at an interval of several miles. In other parts of Scot- 



