THE TRUE TATTLERS. 299 



II. THE COMMON RED-SHANK. TOTANUS CALIDRIS. 



Scolopax calidris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 248 (1766). 



Totanus calidris, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 333 (1852) ; Dresser, B. 



Eur. viii. p. 157, pi. 568, fig. i, pi. 569, fig. 2 (1875); 



B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 176 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yar- 



rell's Brit. B. iii. p. 469 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. 



iii. p. 140, pi. 32, figs. 1-3 (1885) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. 



B. p. 60 1 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xviii. 



(1891) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 414 (1896). 



Adult Male in Summer Plumage. General colour above brown, 

 with more or less of a reddish hue, the feathers mottled with 

 black centres, and notched or barred with black on the mar- 

 gins ; scapulars brown, barred with black; lower back and rump 

 pure white, with a few black spots on the latter; upper tail- 

 coverts ashy-white, barred across with black ; wing-coverts uni- 

 form, excepting the median and greater coverts, which are bar- 

 red with lighter brown and notched with white at the ends ; 

 bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and primaries uniform blackish- 

 brown ; the inner primaries white towards the ends, freckled 

 with brown ; secondaries white, with blackish bases ; the inner 

 secondaries brown, notched with whity-brown, and more or 

 less distinctly barred with black; centre tail-feathers brown, 

 barred with darker brown, the remainder white, barred across 

 with blackish ; crown of head dark brown, the feathers edged 

 with lighter brown ; lores blackish ; sides of face and ear- 

 coverts white, streaked with blackish-brown ; cheeks, throat, 

 and under surface of body white, streaked with broad central 

 markings of blackish-brown, most of the breast-feathers with 

 more or less concealed bars of brown ; abdomen white ; sides 

 of body and flanks with arrow-shaped bars and streaks of 

 brown ; under tail-coverts white, barred across with brown ; 

 under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white, with a few narrow 

 brown bars near the edge of the wing ; quills below dusky- 

 brown, ashy on the inner web, many of the quills freckled or 

 barred with brown ; bill black, red near the base ; feet bright 

 orange-red; iris brown. Total length, 9-5 inches; oilmen, 1*55; 

 wing, 5-85 ; tail, 2-4; tarsus, 1-65. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but not quite so strongly 

 mottled with black above, and somewhat less spotted below. 



