I 10 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE GREENSHANK. 



GREEN-SHANKED GODWIT, OR GREEN-LEGGED HORSEMAN. 

 WINTER PLUMAGE. 



THE Greenshank is of a slender and elegant 

 shape, and its weight small in proportion to its 

 length and dimensions, being only about six ounces, 

 although it measures from the tip of its beak to the 

 end of its tail fourteen inches, and to the toes 

 twenty; and from tip to tip of the wings, twenty- 

 five. The bill is about two inches and a half long, 

 straight and slender, the upper mandible black, the 

 under reddish at its base. The upper parts of its 

 plumage are pale brownish ash, but each feather 

 is marked down the shaft with a glossy bronze 

 brown : the under parts, and rump, are pure white : 

 a whitish streak passes over each eye: the quill 



