PLATE I 



GREENSHANK. Totanus canescens 



May 26//r, 1896. This Plate is taken from a nest near Loch Morlich, 

 Strathspey. I was on my way to photograph a Goosander's nest at Loch 

 Morlich, and was crossing a bare piece of ground, where the forest had 

 evidently been burnt at some time, as the whitened stumps and charred 

 trunks of trees lay about in all directions, and the ground was covered with 

 the whitened stalks of heather; in this desolate spot there were still a few 

 scattered trees, small and stunted, growing on the little knolls in groups of 

 three and four, or scattered about singly on the flat ground. Suddenly a 

 long way ahead up got a pair of Greenshanks and flew straight towards me, 

 making a dreadful noise. I marked my spot and walked for it. On the top 

 of a little knoll were four small trees, making quite a good shelter, and just 

 about the spot where the birds got up; under these I lay down to watch. 



For some time both the birds flew about screaming, but after about a 

 quarter of an hour they both perched on the tops of trees some distance off, 

 and sat there for half an hour calling incessantly. On looking at them 

 through the glasses, at the end of that time I suddenly noticed that one had 

 disappeared ; the other still sat there yelling at the top of its voice. I was 

 looking at a small bare place about three hundred yards away, when I thought 

 I saw something move. I put the glasses on to it, and sure enough it was the 

 other bird. It was most wonderfully cautious, and sneaked along, hiding behind 

 every little inequality in the ground, disappearing at last behind a knoll. The 

 other bird still kept shrieking on the tree-top. I gave them five minutes' 

 grace, and then ran straight to the top of the knoll, behind which the female 

 had disappeared. She got up fifty yards out, and I walked to the spot and 

 dropped my handkerchief. The nest was about eight yards off, and contained 

 two young birds in down, one of them just struggling out of the egg. I 



119 



