PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 447 



found. Exceptionally clutches of 5 eggs occur, but nests with 6, 7, or 8 eggs are 

 probably the produce of two hens. They are pyriform in shape, and placed with 

 converging points. The ground-colour varies from pale ochreous to clay yellowish 

 or rufous ochreous, and the markings consist of purplish brown or red-brown 

 blotches, spots, and streaks, which sometimes form a zone, with light purplish 

 ash shellmarks. Some eggs are much more heavily marked than others, and occa- 

 sionally a clutch is found with a distinctly greenish ground. (PI. M.) Average size of 

 115 eggs, 1'75 x 1*21 in. [44'5 x 30*7 mm.]. Information as to the share of the sexes 

 in incubation is very scanty. Miiller and v. Droste speak of the hen incubating, 

 and H. H. Slater, who has shot a hen from the nest, thinks that both sexes incubate 

 equally. The incubation period is variously given by different writers as 14 to 18 

 days, but three eggs placed in an incubator hatched out on the 23rd day, which 

 probably represents the correct period (W. Evans). In the south of England 

 eggs may be found from the end of March or the beginning of April onward, but 

 generally about mid-April, and from about mid-April in Scotland, but one pair 

 has been known to lay 18 eggs in a season, so that where much robbed they may 

 be found till late in June or even in July, though only a single brood is reared in 

 the season. In the Shetlands Saxby records the first eggs from 16th May, and in 

 Iceland the average time is about mid-June. [F. c. B. j.] 



5. Food. In inland breeding-places aquatic and other insects and their 

 larvae, earthworms, berries (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 344) ; on the shore 

 various crustaceans, such as tiny crabs, shrimps, and sandhoppers, annelids and 

 other marine and shore worms and small molluscs. Prof. Patten found small fish 

 in the stomach of one (Ibid., p. 350). The young feed chiefly on insects, worms, 

 and small thin-skinned crustaceans. They are accompanied and no doubt aided 

 in their search for food by both parents, [w. F.] 



GREENSHANK \T6tanus nebuldrius (Gunner); Totanus canescens 

 (Gmelin). French, chevalier gris ; German, hellfarbiger Wasserlaufer ; 

 Italian, pantana]. 



i. Description. The greenshank may at once be recognised by the long, 

 slightly upturned beak, and the uniformly brown colour of the secondaries. The 

 sexes are alike, and there is a slight seasonal change of coloration. (PI. 129.) Length 

 14 in. [355-60 mm.]. The nuptial plumage, as will be seen from the following 

 description, is incomplete, a fact which has hitherto escaped comment. The 



