388 BIRDS OP SOMERSETSHIRE. 



I have taken the following descriptions of the 

 Greenshank in its summer and winter plumages 

 from Meyer's ' British Birds/ as I have not a 

 specimen in my own collection from which to 

 describe. In the summer plumage, " the top of the 

 head, hack of the neck, back and scapulars consist 

 of dusky feathers, with paler edges; the longer 

 feathers of the scapulars and tertials are black in 

 the centre and regularly edged with a border of 

 white spots; two narrow white bands are formed 

 on the wings by the white tips of the feathers 

 forming the greater wing-coverts ; the feathers 

 which cover the shoulders of the wings are liver- 

 coloured ; the rump is white ; the upper tail-coverts 

 have a dusky spot or bar on each feather near their 

 tips, and the shafts are dusky; the tail is barred 

 with dusky and greyish white; a dusky space 

 between the beak and the eye extends in small 

 spots over the cheek, and communicates with more 

 numerous and larger drop-shaped dusky spots over 

 the sides and upper part of the breast; the under 

 parts are pure white from the chin to the vent ; the 

 base of the beak and the legs are bluish green ; the 

 claws and tip of the beak dusky; iris sepia." 

 Yarrell, however, describes "the legs and toes as 

 olive-green. In winter the ground-colour of the 

 upper parts, with the exception of the pure white 

 rump, is a pale bluish ash ; the top of the head, 

 nape, cheeks, back and sides of the neck are spotted 



