THE GREEN-SHANK. 279 



The nest itself is a mere hollow in the ground, lined with a few 

 dry stalks and blades of grass. Mr. Robert Read writes to 

 me: "This species is exceedingly wary, and although very 

 demonstrative when an intruder is in the vicinity of its nest, it 

 is very careful not to betray the whereabouts of the latter. In 

 June, 1894, on the edge of a reed-covered lake or swamp, I 

 watched a pair unsuccessfully for more than an hour. They flew 

 around, uttering the most noisy cries of alarm, and kept on 

 settling on the tops of the young Scotch fir-trees which grew 

 here and there amongst the willow-scrub, perching within a 

 dozen yards of me. It was very curious to observe these 

 birds, apparently so ill-adapted for perching, clinging some- 

 times to the side of, and sometimes to the extreme tip of the 

 topmost shoot or ' leader ' of the tree. So bold were they that 

 I was able to photograph them as they sat on the summits of 

 the trees." 



Eggs. Four in number, and very handsome. The ground- 

 colour varies from olive-grey or olive-brown to light clay- 

 colour or stone-grey, and the markings are reddish or chestnut, 

 or even blackish, when they form blotches. Although the 

 larger spots are congregated near the thicker end of the egg, in 

 some cases they are distributed fairly evenly over the whole 

 egg, and the purplish-grey underlying markings are decidedly 

 distinct. In other examples, however, only the larger end of 

 the egg shows blotches and spots, and the greater part of it has 

 only scanty spots distributed over its otherwise uniform surface. 

 Axis, i'4-i - 55 inch.; diam., i*o-ro5. 



THE GREEN-SHANK. GENUS GLOTTIS 



Glottis, Koch, Syst. Baier. Zool. p. 305 (1816). 



Type, G. nebular ius (Gunn.). 



Our Green-shank is the only representative of this Old- 

 World genus, and is distinguished from the other British 

 members of the Sub-family by having an upturned bill, 

 in which respect it resembles the Terek Tattler (Terekia 

 dnered] and Haughton's Tattler (Pseudoglottis guttifer). 

 The outer toe is united to the middle one by a basal mem- 



