Shore-bird Shooting 405 



the duties of nidification, laying its four dark 

 eggs early in May, in a rather deep hollow lined 

 with a few grasses, in some dry tussock. Some- 

 times in such places colonies may be found, many 

 pairs selecting the same locality to rear their 

 young. Shy as a rule, at this season they lose all 

 fear and attack man, cow, horse, or hawk, swoop- 

 ing at the head of the invader with a loud tyii, 

 tyii, and not losing courage, though many may 

 be shot. The downy young, when only a day or 

 so old, wander among the coarse grasses, calling 

 plaintively when the rank growth hides them 

 from one another. 



EUROPEAN GREENSHANK 



(Totanus nebular ius} 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Top of head, neck, 

 scapulars, and back, gray, striped with black, margin of feathers, 

 white ; wing-coverts, dark brown, edged with white ; primaries, 

 blackish brown, with white shafts to first ; lower back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, white, with irregular bars of black on the 

 tail-coverts; central tail feathers, gray, with dusky bars; the 

 two next to central, barred with black ; others, pure white ; 

 under parts, white ; neck and breast, streaked and spotted with 

 black ; iris, brown ; bill, black ; legs and feet, olive-green. 



Adult male and female in winter plumage Above, pale ash-gray, 

 feathers, tipped with white and with dark shaft streak; fore- 

 head, white ; lores and centre of forehead, dusky ; under parts, 

 pure white. 



Young Similar to adults in winter, but more tinged with rufous 

 brown above, and feathers spotted with whitish brown ; central 

 tail feathers, white, barred with black ; chest and sides of breast, 

 streaked and spotted with dusky. 



