SPOTTED REDSHANK. 203 



Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the names " spoi," 

 " spou," " spof," and " spove," are respectively applied 

 either to this bird or the curlew, whilst the curlew 

 is specially and repeatedly named in the L'Estrange 

 accounts. 



TOTANUS FUSCUS (Linnaeus). 

 SPOTTED BEDSHANK. 



Although not specified in our earlier local records, 

 the Spotted Eedshank, no doubt, visited our coast in 

 former times as frequently as, and probably more nume- 

 rously than, it does now, but its identification, owing to 

 great differences in plumage (a matter of age as well as 

 of seasonal change), was evidently an ornithological 

 riddle not easily solved, and hence the numerous 

 synonyms,* attached by authors to this one species. By 

 Messrs. Gurney and Fisher it was accurately described 

 in 1846 as "not uncommon about the end of summer 

 and early in autumn, the specimens so occurring 

 being generally young birds ;" but their remark that 

 it is only " occasionally obtained at other periods of 

 the year," seems somewhat at variance with recent 

 experience. This, however, merely indicates, what is 

 observable in other migratory species, that, of late 

 years, their stay is less prolonged on their southward 

 passage, the main body passing over us altogether, and 

 a few stragglers only marking their autumnal move- 



* Besides the name adopted by Yarrell this bird has been 

 described as the dusky sandpiper, dusky snipe, black-headed 

 snipe, spotted snipe, black redshank, Courland snipe, and Cam- 

 bridge ejodwit. 



