184 GRALI^E. 



to the southward in the autumn, to return in April. Its 

 proper migration does not, therefore, extend so far north as 

 the parallel of the British islands ; and therefore the circum- 

 stances by which even a straggling individual can be wafted 

 so far out of the line of its regular passage, must be peculiar 

 indeed. 



The feet and base of the bill are reddish ; the tip of the 

 latter dusky ; the upper part greenish brown, spotted with 

 dusky, the spots larger and three-cornered on the back and 

 scapulars ; quills of the wings dusky ; the secondaries and 

 greater coverts tipped with white ; rump and two middle 

 feathers of the tail plain greenish brown ; the exterior fea- 

 thers white with brownish bars ; the front of the neck and 

 upper part of the breast marked with well-defined round 

 dusky spots on a pure white ground, in both sexes, when 

 mature ; but the young are without the spots. 



THE GREEN-SHANK SAND-PIPER (TotanuS glottis). 



The green-shank is the largest British bird of the genus, 

 measuring about fourteen inches in length, and nearly two 

 feet in the stretch of the wings. Though not the gayest in 

 its plumage, it is perhaps the most elegant in its form, which 

 is peculiarly light and graceful. Comparing it with the red- 

 shank, in the ratio of the cubes of the lengths, which is the 

 method of judging of similar birds, the weight of the green- 

 shank should be about seven ounces and a half: but it is only 

 six ounces, or four-fifths the weight of the other, as compared 

 with the length. The bill is about two inches and a half 

 long, very slender, black or dusky, except the base of the 

 upper mandible, which is reddish ; the head, nape, and sides 

 of the eye, ash-colour, streaked with dusky ; the sides of the 

 head relieved by a white streak from the upper mandible to 

 the eye ; the back ash, glossed with bronze-brown on the 

 centres of the feathers ; the scapulars, coverts, and some of 



