THE GREENSHANK. 77 



young have the upper plumage brownish, the plumage 

 on the breast ash-colour, with pale brownish streaks, 

 and the tail-feathers have reddish-brown tips. The 

 Spotted Redshank (Totanus fuscus), which does not 

 breed in Britain, is a bird of the river banks, but a 

 winter visitor ; its breeding-ground is in Norway and 

 Lapland. 



The Greenshank (Totanus glottis] is a bird of simi- 

 lar habits, and visits this country. Dr. McGillivray 

 found it breeding on the lakes in Unst, Harris, and 

 Lewis. In the summer season " it is easily discovered, 

 for when, perhaps, more than a quarter of a mile dis- 

 tant 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, and at intervals alighting by the edge of 

 the lake, whence it continues its cries, vibrating its 

 body all the while. The nest found in the Island of 

 Harris was at a considerable distance from a small 

 lake, and consisted of a few fragments of heath and 

 some blades of grass placed in a shallow cavity, scraped 

 in the turf in an exposed place, that is, on a slight 

 eminence, covered chiefly with moss, lichens, and 

 some carices (sedges) and short heath. The nest, in 

 fact, resembled those of the golden plover, lapwing, 

 and curlew." " In 1836 Mr. Selby found this species 

 breeding in various parts of Sutherland, generally in 

 some swampy marsh or by the margin of some of its 

 numerous lochs. It is very wild and wary, except 

 when it has tender young, at which time, when first 

 disturbed, it sometimes approaches pretty near, mak- 

 ing a rapid stoop, like the redshank, at the head of the 



