378 BIEDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



tipped with white ; the primaries black, with white 

 shafts, but no white spots ; breast and belly black, 

 a few feathers with white tips ; under wing-coverts 

 white, with dusky grey shafts ; axillary plume pure 

 white ; under tail-coverts barred black and white ; 

 legs and toes dark red, claws black. I do not know 

 that a specimen has ever occurred in England in this 

 plumage, but only in winter plumage and in a state 

 of change. In young birds of the year the upper 

 surface of the body is tinged with brown, and the 

 white colour of the under surface is clouded with 

 ash-grey ; the legs are orange-red. My bird above 

 described appears to be something between this and 

 the adult winter plumage. 



Yarrell, describing the eggs from Hewitson, says 

 they are pear-shaped : in one specimen, he says, the 

 ground is a rich asparagus-green, with rather nume- 

 rous oblong spots of brownish black over the 

 broadest part of the egg, with smaller spots of ash- 

 grey and reddish brown: in others the ground 

 colour is olive-brown. 



COMMON REDSHANK, Totanus calidris. This is a 

 much more common species than that last-men- 

 tioned, and occurs on our muddy shores and occa- 

 sionally inland in the more boggy and swampy 

 parts : it generally makes its appearance in the* 

 spring and autumn, most frequently in the latter ; 

 it must, therefore, as far as our county is concerned, 

 be considered only as a spring and autumn visitor. 



