110 SHOOTING. 



pointed and shaped to the form of each feather. Several of the' 

 secondaries are barred in the same fashion, and some are white,; 

 The back is white; the tail feathers and coverts are elegantlj 

 marked with alternate bars of dusky and wliite. The middle ones 

 are slightly tinged with rnst colour. The legs are red, and 

 measuie from the end »f the toes to the upper bare part of the 

 thigh, four inches and a half. 



The red shank is of a soHtary character, being mostly seen alone^) 

 or in pairs only. It is an inhabitant of the fenny districts, of thei 

 wet and marshy lands, where it breeds and rears its young. It 

 lays four eggs, of a whitish hue, tiaged with oHve, and freckled 

 with irregular spots of black, chiefly on the broad end of the eg£ 

 It flies round its nest when disturbed, making a noise similai 

 to the lapwing._ The red shank is not very easily shot. Its flights 

 are rapid, and its movements spiral. It affords, however, excellent 

 sport to a young shooter. 



The Godwit (Scolopax Mgocepala, Linn.) — This is a fen bird, of 

 w;hich there are several varieties, or at least there is a considerable 

 difference of plumage among the class ; and this circmnstance has, 

 ^iven rise to many attempts among sportsmen and naturalists to' 

 increase the number of species. _ The length of the bird, from the; 

 extreme end of the biU to the tip of the tail, is twelve inches, and! 

 to the end of the toes nearly fifteen inches. Its breadth is twenty- 

 one inches and a quarter, and its weight is five ounces and two 

 drachms. The biU is of a slender coiiformation, measuring two 

 inches and a half from the corners of the mouth to the tip, and is! 

 for half its length, nearest to the base, of a reddish cast, and thei 

 other part black. The irides are hazel. The head, breast, neck,i 

 and belly, are spotted in streaks, mottled and barred with dingy! 

 ash-brown and dull white, which become darker towards the hhideri 

 part of the neck. The throat is white, and Hues of the same colour* 

 pass from the upper sides of the beak over each eye, from the 

 corners of which two brown ones are extended to the nostrils.' 

 The shoulders, scapulars, lesser coverts, and tail, are of a glossy 

 olive-brown. The feathers on aU these parts are indented on the \ 

 edges, to a greater or less extent, with triangular-shaped wliite 

 spots. The back is white, and the rump barred with waved hues 

 of ash-coloured bro->vn and dingy white. The feathers about the \ 

 vent are marked in a similar manner, but with a larger proportion 

 of white ill them. The tail and coverts are Ukewise barred ^dth 

 narrow waved Knes, of a dull ash-colour, and in some specimens are 

 nearly black and white. Eive of the chief qmlls are dark brown, 

 tinged with ohve ; the shaft of the first quill is white ; the next six 

 are, in the male, rather deeply tinged with wliite, and shghtly 

 spotted, barred with brown. The secondaries, as far as uncovered, 

 when the wings are extended, are of the same snowy whiteness as 

 the back. The feathers which_ cover the upper part of the tliighs, 

 and those near them, are bluish, with a reddish or vinous hue. 

 The legs are of a deep orange red, and measure from the end of the 



