180 ORALLY. 



birds which have only one brood in the season, are larger 

 in proportion to the size of the birds than are those of the 

 species which have more than one. 



THE BED-SHANK SAND-PIPER (TotdHUS CCllidr'ls). 



This is an indigenous, and by no means a rare species in 

 those parts of the country which suit its habits. These are 

 the fenny and boggy grounds, to which the birds resort about 

 April or May, making rude nests in tufts, and depositing four 

 eggs of a pale olive colour, blotched with dusky brown, espe- 

 cially towards the larger ends. In England, its breeding 

 places are chiefly confined to the fens and marshes at no 

 great distance from the sea ; but in the north it resorts far- 

 ther inland, to the cold upland bogs which remain buried all 

 the year round, though even there it does not go so far 

 inland as the lapwing. It is even more clamorous than that 

 bird, when any one approaches the place of its nest, and it 

 flies and wheels about something in the same manner, though 

 without those curious turns and twitches which characterize, 

 the flight of the lapwing. 



Red-shanks do not assemble in flocks in the winter, but 

 range themselves along the coasts, and lead a solitary though 

 by no means a silent life, till a new season calls them again 

 to the breeding places, in which also each pair reside at some 

 distance from the next. 



The feet of the bird, from which it gets its popular name, 

 are orange red, and so is the basal half of the bill, the re- 

 mainder of that organ being dusky. The bill is about two 

 inches long ; the tarsi are also long, and all the three front 

 toes partially webbed, the first and second nearly to the first 

 joint ; the second and third merely rudimental. The irides 

 are hazel, and the naked spaces around the eye greyish 

 white. 



The length, \vhen full grown, is about eleven inches, the 



