OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 233 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus TOTANUS. 



Subfamily TOTANIN&. 



COMMON REDSHANK. 



TOTANUS CALIDEIS (Linnaus). 

 PLATE XXVI. 



Scolopax calidris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 248 (1766). 



Totanus calidris (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 333 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 157, 

 pi. 568, fig. 1, pi. 569, fig. 2 (1875); Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4 iii. p. 469 (1883); 

 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 140 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xviii. (1891) ; 

 Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 269 (1893) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 

 299 (1896); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 140, pi. 44 (1896); Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 414 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Eedshank is generally 

 though locally distributed over the marshes of the British Islands during summer, 

 becoming more common in the eastern counties of England, and throughout 

 Scotland, where it extends to the Orkneys and Shetlands as well as to the Outer 

 Hebrides. It is fairly distributed over suitable localities in Ireland during summer. 

 It becomes more numerous during autumn, as great numbers then resort to the 

 coasts on passage, and many remain to winter on them. Foreign : Southern 

 Palaearctic region ; Ethiopian and Oriental regions in winter. It breeds through- 

 out Europe, including Iceland and the Faroes, with the exception that east of 

 long. 40 its range gradually becomes more southerly, until in the Urals the 

 limits do not extend beyond lat. 58. It is a resident throughout the basin of. the 

 Mediterranean, breeding in North Africa ; but to the African portion of the Inter- 

 tropical realm, and to the Canaries it is a winter visitor only. If the Kedshank 

 be a normal migrant to South Africa, we should infer that it breeds there. 

 Notwithstanding Seebohm' s statement that this species is a winter visitor to the 

 "entire south coast of the continent," we may remark that the British Museum 

 collection does not contain a single example from that vast district. East- 

 wards it breeds in Siberia as far north as lat. 55, and on the mountain ranges of 

 the south of that country as well as in Turkestan, and possibly on the highlands 

 of Persia. It passes through Mongolia on migration, and winters in Arabia, 

 India, Ceylon, Burinah, China, and the Malay Archipelago, and has been recorded 

 from Japan. 



