THE REDSHANK. 159 



family SCOL OP A CID/E. 



REDSHANK. 



Totanus calidris, LINN. 



A WELL- KNOWN bird with us. It breeds in most parts of Europe as far 

 north as Iceland, the Faeroes, Northern Norway, and the coasts of Russian 

 Lapland (We found a nest with four eggs near Sviatoi Nos in 1895). East of the 

 White Sea (I quote from Seebohm) its northern limit drops to 58, in Siberia and 

 Turkestan to 55. In Northern Africa (which is, north of the Sahara, a part of 

 Europe, zoologically) it breeds, and to the coasts of the rest of Africa is a winter 

 visitor ; and in Asia, winters in India, Ceylon, Burmah, and Indo-Malaya, passing 

 Japan and China on migration. With us it is a sea-coast bird, some retiring 

 inland to nest in marshy places and wet river-meadows ; in most parts of the 

 coast abundant; on August 22nd, 1889, in my notes made on the Yorkshire coast, 

 I find the entry, " anything like the Redshanks, I never saw before ; one flock of 

 over one hundred within thirty yards of me ; I must have seen over one thousand 

 here to-day." That year there was an exceptional migration of them. 



Description of adult in summer (9 shot off eggs, Ljosavatn, Iceland, July 4th, 

 1885, etc.): bill dark brown at tip, yellow at base (i inches long); iris umber; 

 crown, back, and wings, ash-brown, with darker shaft-streaks to the feathers; on 

 the scapulars and tertials these widen into zig-zag transverse bars, and are mingled 

 Avith a few light rufescent spots ; the greater wing-coverts have a few dark 

 marginal spots and white edges ; primaries very dark brown, the first only ivith a 

 ivhiie shaft, the innermost with white inner webs, freckled with brown ; secondaries 

 nearly white, with a few brown dashes ; lower back and rump white ; upper tail- 

 -coverts white, barred narrowly with sooty ; tail white, the central pair of feathers 

 clouded with brown, and all narrowly barred with sooty-black ; sides of head, 

 throat and neck, breast, sides of body, and under tail-coverts, white (duskier on 

 the breast), striped, spotted, or barred with dark brown; axillaries white, with a 

 few subterminal streaks ; centre of belly white ; legs and feet vivid orange-red ; 

 claws black. Length n inches, closed wing 6f. The male is rather smaller. 



Adult in winter ($ Bamborough, 28, u, '77, etc.) is much duskier and more 

 uniform in tint ; the shaft-stripes of the upper parts are inconspicuous ; there are 

 a few minute black dots on the scapulars and tertiaries, and the white rump of 



