GREENSHANK. 667 



season, and after the young are fledged, it resorts to the 

 shores of the sea, frequenting pools of brackish water at the 

 head of the sandfords, and the shallow margins of hays and 

 creeks. Its hahits are very similar to those of the Red- 

 shank, with which it associates in autumn. It is extremely 

 shy and vigilant, insomuch that one can very seldom shoot 

 it, unless after it has deposited its eggs. Many individuals 

 remain during the summer, when they are to be found by 

 the lakes in the interior, of which the number in Uist, 

 Harris, and Lewis is astonishing. At that season it is very 

 easily discovered, for when you are perhaps more than a 

 quarter of a mile distant, it rises into the air with clamo- 

 rous cries, alarming all the birds in its neighbourhood, flies 

 round the place of its nest, now wheeling off to a distance, 

 again advancing towards you, and at intervals alighting by 

 the edge of the lake, when it continues its cries, vibrating 

 its body all the while. I once found a nest of this bird in 

 the island of Harris. It was at a considerable distance 

 from the water, and consisted of a few fragments of heath 

 and some blades of grass, placed in a hollow cavity scraped 

 in the turf, in an exposed place. The nest, in fact, re- 

 sembled that of the Golden Plover, the Curlew, or the 

 Lapwing. The eggs, placed with their narrow ends toge- 

 ther, were four in number, pyriform, larger than those 

 of the Lapwing, and smaller than those of the Golden 

 Plover, equally pointed with the latter, but proportion- 

 ally broader and more rounded at the larger end than 

 either. The dimensions of one of them was two inches 

 exactly, by one inch and three-eighths : the ground colour 

 is a very pale yellowish green, sprinkled all over with ir- 

 regular spots of dark brown, intermixed with blotches of 

 light purplish grey, the spots, and especially the blotches, 

 more numerous on the larger end. Although in summer 

 these birds may be seen in many parts of the islands, they 



