404 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



745, TOTANUS CALIDRIS. 



THE REDSHANK. 



Scolopax calidris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 245. Totanus calidris, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 

 p. 702; Hume, S. F. i. p. 248 ; ii. p. 299: Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 328; BIB. 

 Burm. p. 155 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. viii. p. 157, pi. ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 348; 

 David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 464 ; Hume # Dav. S. F. vi. p. 464 ; Cripps, S. F. 

 vii. p. 304; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 113; Ley ge, Birds Ceylon, p. 852; Oates, S. F. 

 x. p. 241. 



Description. Winter plumage. Forehead, crown, nape, hind neck, back, 

 scapulars and tertiaries glossy ashy brown ; lower back and rump pure 

 white ; upper tail-coverts white barred with brown ; tail barred with ashy 

 and white and more or less tinged with brown ; space between the bill and 

 the eye brown ; above this white ; cheeks and sides of face brown streaked 

 with white ; the whole lower plumage with the axillaries white, the fore neck 

 and upper breast streaked with brown ; primaries brown, the shaft of the 

 first white ; secondaries almost all white ; wing-coverts brown margined 

 with white, the greater coverts tipped with white ; under tail-coverts with 

 a few brown streaks. 



In summer the upper plumage becomes marked with black and the 

 whole lower plumage is densely streaked with brown. 



Iris brown ; bill black, with the base of the upper mandible reddish ; 

 legs and feet orange-red. 



Length 11 inches, tail 2'6, wing 6'2, tarsus 2, bill from gape 2. The 

 female is of about the same size. 



The Redshank is common throughout the Province during the winter 

 months, and Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay observed it in Karennee. 



It occurs throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, extending to Cochin 

 China, the Philippines and the islands of the Malay archipelago. It does 

 not retire so far north in summer as many of the other Waders do. It 

 breeds in Central Asia and in Europe, even so far south as Spain. 



This species has much the same habits as the Greenshank, being met 

 with in small flocks on the banks of rivers and near pools of water and 

 marshes. 



