BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 1 15 



173. TOTANUS GLOTTIS (Pallas). Greenshank. 



Occurs as a spring and autumn visitant to the 

 mud-flats and sea-coast, but is by no means common. 

 I have never met with them in any thing like flocks 

 usually either singly or two or three together. They 

 feed in company with Knot and other waders, and 

 are always excessively wild and shy, rising on the 

 slightest sign of danger. Occasionally in the early 

 autumn we hear their shrill call-notes when flying at 

 an immense height over the marshes. 



Appears on the flats in April, and again in August 

 and September. On the 18th of August, 1868, I 

 killed a beautiful mature male on the Stallinborough 

 fitties, flying in company with a Redshank, both falling 

 to the same shot*. The stomach was well filled with 

 small crabs about as large as peas. Greenshanks 

 were more plentiful than usual on our coast in the 

 autumn following the dry hot summer of 1870. 



Mr. Boulton has specimens shot on the river 

 Hull, and considers it a decidedly rare visitor in 

 Holderness. 



174. RECURVIROSTRA AVOCETTA, Linnaeus. Avocet. 



Mr. Pennant, writing of the Avocet in his f British 

 Zoology/ says : " We have seen them in considerable 

 numbers in the breeding -season near Fossdyke Wash 

 in Lincolnshire ; like the Lapwing, when disturbed 

 they flew over our heads, carrying their iiecks and 

 * Are now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun. 



