GREENSHANK. 669 



They feed on small fish, worms, insects, besides crusta- 

 ceous and molluscous animals. 



This bird visits Russia, and has been found in Germany, 

 on the banks of the Rhine ; is occasionally obtained in 

 Holland, but only seen on its passage in France, Provence, 

 Switzerland, and Italy. It is observed also in spring and 

 autumn at Corfu, Sicily, Malta, and Crete. Mr. Strick- 

 land says it visits Smyrna in winter, and he obtained a 

 specimen, but it was considered rare. The Zoological 

 Society have received specimens from Trebizond, by favour 

 of Keith Abbott, Esq. M. Julian Desjardins communi- 

 cated to the Zoological Society, in 1833, a description of 

 this bird taken from a specimen killed in Mauritius ; the 

 bird not being known to have previously occurred in the 

 island. There is but little doubt that the species found in 

 various parts of Asia, and described under the term glot- 

 ioides, is our Greenshank. Dr. Horsfield includes the 

 Greenshank in his Catalogue of the Birds of Java; and 

 M. Temminck remarks, that the examples of this bird 

 received by him from the island of Sunda, and the 

 Moluccas, in every respect resemble those of Europe, but 

 are always in the plumage of winter. Montagu, in his 

 Ornithological Dictionary, said that this bird had been 

 observed in America, in the province of New York ; and 

 Mr. Audubon has since found it in Florida. 



The beak of the Greenshank is about two inches long, 

 nearly black, and very slightly curved upwards ; the irides 

 hazel ; the upper part of the head, the cheeks, the neck on 

 the sides and behind, marked with well-defined dark lines, 

 on a ground colour of greyish white ; the back, wing- 

 coverts, and tertials, ash brown, edged with buffy white ; 

 quill -primaries uniform dusky black ; tail-feathers white, 

 those in the middle barred transversely, the outer feathers 

 striped longitudinally with ash brown ; chin white ; front 



