THE LITTLE GKEENSHANK. 403 



744. TOTANUS STAGNATILIS. 

 THE LITTLE GREENSHANK. 



Totanus stagnatilis, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. ii. p. 292; Jerd. B. Ind.ii. p. 701; 

 Dresser, Birds Eur. viii. p. 151, pi. j Saluad. Ucc. Horn. p. 328; LI. IS. Burin. 

 p. 155 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 183; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 348 ; David et Oust. 

 Ois. Chine, p. 4(53; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 463; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 113; 

 Leyye, Birds Cei/tun, p. 844; Oates, S. F. x. p. 241. 



Description. Winter plumage. Forehead, lores, cheeks and the whole 

 lower plumage with the uxillarics and under wing-coverts pure white ; the 

 sides of the neck and of the breast with a few narrow brown streaks ; crown, 

 nape and hind neck greyish brown, narrowly streaked with blackish and 

 white; back and scapulars with black shafts and narrowly edged with 

 white ; lesser wing-coverts very dark brown ; median and greater coverts 

 greyish brown edged with white ; tertiaries with interrupted black bars or 

 spots on the outer webs ; primaries brown, the later ones narrowly edged 

 with white on the inner webs and at the tips ; secondaries brown margined 

 with white and with a good deal of the inner webs white; lower back and 

 rump pure white ; upper tail-coverts white with arrowhead- shaped brown 

 bars ; tail white, with irregular, more or less diagonally disposed brown 

 bars. 



In summer the feathers of the upper plumage become blotched with 

 black, and the forehead, sides of the head and neck, the whole throat and 

 breast become covered with roundish black marks. 



Bill black, olive-brown at base ; iris brown ; legs yellowish brown with 

 an olive tinge; claws dark brown. 



Length 10 inches, tail 2'4, wing 5*6^ tarsus 2*1, bill from gape T75. 

 The female is of about the same size. 



The Little Greenshank is abundant in Pegu during the winter, but not 

 so much so as the preceding species. Mr. Davison states that it is rare in 

 Tenasserim, and Mr. Blyth records it from Arrakan. 



It inhabits Eastern and South-eastern Europe, and it has been found 

 over the greater part of Africa. It occurs throughout Central and 

 Southern Asia, not going far north ; it extends in a south-easterly direction 

 to the Malay archipelago, having been found in Java and Borneo, and it 

 ranges to Australia. It has been found breeding in Hungary and in 

 Turkestan. 



This Greenshank is found in small flocks of from four to ten individuals 

 on the mud-banks of the larger rivers, and also on the edges of marshes 

 and ponds. 



