206 GREENSHANK. 



the down being of a grey or hair-brown colour, 

 instead of the more umber and ochreous tints 

 which characterise the same state in the Red- 

 shank. The nest was not seen, but the places 

 selected, and where we found the young, were in 

 low marshy hollows, in one instance surrounded 

 with brushwood. The parents were extremely cla- 

 morous, flying around, sometimes with rapid evolu- 

 tions, at others, with the legs stretched out behind, 

 arid with the slow beat of the wing, peculiar to 

 this and allied families during this season. They 

 approached very near, and, at intervals, would 

 alight on a large stone, or upon the highest twigs 

 of the brushwood,* uttering at the same time their 

 wild and plaintive note. The young, in their 

 first plumage, we have often met with, by the 

 sides of the Highland lochs, which had evidently 

 been bred in this country. In the south of Scot- 

 land (in our own vicinity) they are frequently, in 

 autumn, observed in the evening, flying or passing 

 over at a considerable elevation, as if on some 

 passage or migration, and are betrayed by their 

 noisy notes. During winter one or two individuals 

 are seen, and occasionally procured, by the river 

 side, or near some wide ditches ; arid we have also 

 frequently seen them, and have shot the young 

 birds, on the banks of the Tweed, between Kelso 

 and Coldstream. According to Mr. Yarrell, its 

 occurrence in the south is, in a similar manner, 



* In Norway, Mr. Hewitson observed the Greenshank 

 perched on the top of a tall tree. 



