TOTANUS GLOTTIS. 843 



at Mozambique ; and it strays eastward still to the Seychelles, in which it has been noticed by Mr. E. Newton 

 on Mahe and Curieuse' islands. In South Africa it winters, and has been obtained in Natal and on the 

 Limpopo river, where Mr. E. Buckley writes, in the ' Ibis/ that it is common, Layard remarks that in Cape 

 colony it is common, and found on almost all the vleys throughout the country. 



In Damara Land it is plentiful ; and up the west coast of the continent it has been obtained in Benguela, 

 Gaboon, and Prince's Island, also on the Gold Coast and in Senegambia. In Madeira it has occurred, 

 according to Von Heugiin ; and it is a straggler to some parts of the coast of North America. 



Habits. — This very fine Sandpiper frequents the same situations as the rest of its group, being found on 

 the borders of tidal rivers, salt creeks, lakes, and lagoons, on sand banks (about which its long legs enable it to 

 walk before they are left bare by the tide), and also on the open beach. It is also, to a certain extent, a fresh- 

 water species, frequenting the borders of tanks, jheels, aud marshes ; but about such localities it is found 

 chiefly on passage and while breeding. I have always in the winter observed it, either singly, two or three 

 together, or in little companies of not more than half a dozen, and it is frequently accompanied by a few other 

 birds, such as its lesser companion, the Little Greenshauk, and perhaps one or two Curlew and Lesser Stints. 

 When wading in water, however, it is only the first-named bird, owing to the length of its legs, that is able to 

 accompany it. While feeding, its manners are somewhat those of the Common Redshank; it walks hither and 

 thither, pecking on one side and the other like that species ; but it can always be recognized by its greater 

 height, and, when it flies, by its peculiar note and the less amount of white displayed. It is tolerably wary, 

 but will often allow itself to be walked up to within shot ; when it rises it utters a loud note unlike that of 

 other species of its group, and which consists of three syllables, the two loudest of which have been likened to 

 lung tuny. It feeds on small crabs to a considerable extent, which it finds on the muddy foreshores of tropical 

 lagoons ; but it also consumes aquatic insects, for which it searches in wet marshes and salt flats, near the 

 edge of the tide, which are only covered just at high water. In little pools lying in such localities it may 

 often be seen wading. The flesh of the Greenshank is very good eating, as there is an absence of any fishy taste 

 about it, and it is not at all dry. 



In the spring, prior to migration, it collects in large flocks of fifty or more, and shortly afterwards leaves 

 for northern latitudes. In the Stanowoi mountains, Middendorff noticed it perching, "with much noise," on 

 the tops of low trees growing round the morasses. In the Petchora valley, Mr. Seebohm found it frequenting 

 marshy hollows and pools in the woods. 



The flight of the Greenshank is very swift, and it has a habit of suddenly alighting, which is a somewhat 

 difficult matter while flying with its accustomed speed; and to enable it to stop itself it half closes its wings 

 and sways its body with a jerking motion from side to side, and then, throwing up its head, spreads out its 

 wings in a position slightly inclined to the vertical, which at once brings it to a halt. I have on several 

 occasions noticed this performance, and I find that other naturalists have observed the same thing. It is said 

 to become very tame in confinement. 



Nidification. — The Greenshank breeds in May and June ; on the 12th of the former month Middendorff 

 found it already at its breeding-haunts in North-eastern Siberia ; and its eggs were taken by Messrs. Seebohm 

 and Harvie Brown on the Petchora on the 11th of June. The nest is said to consist of a hollow scraped in 

 the ground, lined with grass-stalks, feathers, leaves, and other dried vegetation. 



The eggs of the Greenshank are four' in number, and vary somewhat in size and shape, some being broad 

 and pyriform, and others very long and pointed, without being much compressed at the small end. In colour 

 they are mostly stone-buff or greyish buff, some having a slight olivaceous tinge. The markings vary from 

 large blackish-sepia clouds, few in number, but distributed over the whole egg, to numerous rather smudgy 

 blots and longitudinal dashes of lighter browu, mingled with bluish-grey blotches of several shades scattered 

 over the whole surface. Small specks and short linear marks are mingled with these in some eggs, and large 

 bluish dashes underlie at the obtuse end the first-named dark clouds of blackish brown, some of which run 

 in a transverse direction. An egg of the broad type measures L87 by l - 35 inch, and of the elongated type 

 2-08 by 1-27. A smaller egg than either is l - 86 long by L24 broad. The specimens from which I take 

 these descriptions are in the possession of Mr. Dresser, and were collected in Lapland and Finmark. 



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