PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 445 



REDSHANK [Totanus totanus (Linnaeus); Totanus cdlidris (Linnaeus). 

 Tooke or tuke, red-legs, yelper, sand-cock, pool-snipe ; pillcock (Devon) ; 

 whistling-plover (Derby). French, chevalier gambette ; German, Gambett- 

 Wasserldufer ; Italian, pettegola]. 



i. Description. The redshank may at once be distinguished by the white 

 rump, white inner primaries and secondaries, and the long red legs. There is a 

 distinct seasonal change of coloration, and the sexes are alike in plumage. (PI. 129.) 

 Length 11 in. [279 '40 mm.]. The adult in nuptial dress has the upper parts greyish 

 brown heavily striated on the crown and hind-neck with slaty brown ; irregularly 

 triangular blotches of the same hue overspread the mantle save on the hinder 

 scapulars and on the long inner secondaries, where blotches give place to bars. The 

 lower back and rump are white, and the upper tail-coverts are white closely barred 

 with black. The central tail feathers are of a greyish brown barred with black, 

 the remainder greyish white barred with black. The wing-coverts are olive-brown, 

 but a few of the minor series are of a dull greyish white, barred black. The median 

 series are of a pale brownish grey, barred with darker grey, while the major coverts 

 have the terminal portion barred with black and white. The primaries are of a 

 slaty black, the outermost quill with a white shaft ; the inner primaries have the 

 terminal portion white with a subterminal chevron of dark grey. The outer 

 secondaries are white. The under parts are white striated with dark grey on the 

 fore-neck and fore-breast, and barred on the hinder flanks ; the under tail-coverts 

 are also Avhite barred with slate-black. Beak dark horn colour, red at the base, 

 legs orange-red. Iris dark brown. After the autumn moult the upper parts 

 are of an ash-grey hue tinged with bronze on the mantle, and faintly striated with 

 dark grey on the crown and hind-neck, while the minor arid median wing-coverts 

 have narrow white margins notched with black. The under parts are white, lightly 

 striated with dark grey on the fore-neck and fore-breast, and faintly barred on the 

 flanks. The juvenile plumage recalls that of the adult in summer (nuptial) dress. 

 But the upper parts are much darker, browner, and obscurely striated with buff, 

 save on the scapulars and wing-coverts, which are spotted with irregular oval spots 

 of buff. The upper tail-coverts and tail feathers are more heavily, coarsely, barred 

 with black. The inner primaries have the subterminal, black, marginal line much 

 thicker, and surrounding a second similar line, while the white secondaries are 

 barred with black. The under parts are of a dark brownish grey, tinged with 



YOL. III. 3M 



