136 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



the upper-parts where the feathers are more mottled and the margins regularly 

 edged with white. 



Nestling. Upper-surface brownish-grey with blackish-brown marking somewhat 

 Hnearly arranged showing an obscure striped appearance ; a marked frontal streak 

 and prominent loral stripe running through the eye ; under-surface pure white ; 

 legs and bill long. 



Nest. A depression in the grass. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour pale stone, covered with very dark red 

 blotches and underlying ones of lavender ; axis 48-50 mm., diameter 34. 



Breeding-season. May, June. (Siberia.) 



Distribution and forms. Throughout northern Europe and Asia, migrating 

 southward in winter. Though many authorities have recognised the eastern form 

 as differing in its paler plumage at the present time this appears to be ignored on 

 account of lack of good series. 



Genus ILIORNIS. 



Iliornis Kaup, Skizz. Entwick.-Gesch. Nat. Syst., p. 156, (pref. April) 1829. Type (by 



monotypy) : Totanus stagnatilis Bechstcin. 



Medium Totanine Waders with long straight slender bills, very long wings, 

 very long legs with long exposed tibia, and tails of medium length. 



The culmen is long and slender, with the tip of the upper mandible hard and 

 not expanded but turned down over the lower mandible ; the grooves in both 

 mandibles are short and less than half the length of the culmen. The wings are 

 long and pointed, the first primary longest. 



The metatarsus is very long and regularly scutellate both in front and behind 

 and equal to, or more than twice the length of, the middle toe ; it is also more than 

 one-third the length of the wing. The exposed tibia is very long, equalling the 

 middle toe in length. The tail is a little longer than the metatarsus. The toes are 

 long and slender with a distinct web between the outer and the middle one, and a 

 scarcely noticeable web between the middle and inner toe. Hind-toe present. 



94. Iliornis stagnatilis. LITTLE GREENSHANK. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 37 (pt. XXXHI.), Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 2, pi. 149, May 



2nd, 1913. 



Totanus stagnatilis Bechstein, Oraith. Taschenb. Deutschl.. pt. ii., p. 292, 1803 : Germany. 



Trynga guinetta Pallas, Zoogr. Roeso-Asiat., Vol. II., p. 196, 1827 : Russia. 



Limosa horsfieldii Sykes, Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1832, p. 163, Nov. 22nd : Dukhun, 



India. 



Totanus lathamii Gray and Hardwicke, Illus. Ind. Zool., Vol. II., pi. 61, fig. 3 (? May 3rd), 



1834 : Cawnpore, India. 



Totanus gracilis Brehm, Vollstand. Vogelfang, p. 313, 1856 (pref. Nov. 8th, 1854) : north 



East Africa. 



Iliornis stagnatilis addenda Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 7, p. 126, Jan. 28th, 1915 : 



Northern Territory. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male in breeding-plumage. Mantle and back ash-grey with dark shaft- 

 lines and arrowhead black blotches ; some of the long scapulars irregularly marked 

 and barred with black, the long innermost secondaries similarly marked ; lesser 

 and greater wing coverts dark brown, the latter tipped with white ; some of the 

 median coverts blotched with black like the back ; bastard-wing, primary -coverts 

 and quills dark brown, the shaft of the outer primary white, the inner primaries 

 paler and margined with white like the secondaries ; lower back and rump pure 

 white ; upper tail-coverts and middle tail-feathers white, barred with brown, the 



