416 The Water-fowl Family 



Measurements — Length, 9.75 inches; wing, 6 inches; tail, 2.40 

 inches; culmen, 1.50 inches; tarsus, 1.65 inches. 



Eggs — Four; pyriform; buff, spotted with dark brown and gray; 

 measure 1.75 by 1.25 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, throughout Europe, 

 northern Africa, Asia Minor, Turkestan, and Siberia, south of 

 55 - Winters in Great Britain, northern Europe, throughout 

 Africa, and southern Asia from India to China, Japan, the 

 Philippines, and the Malay Archipelago. This species was 

 recorded from Hudson Bay, in Swainson and Richardson's 

 "Fauna Boreali- Americana," in 1831. 



The redshank is one of the commonest shore- 

 birds, breeding in Great Britain, seeking the re- 

 tired marshes for a summer home, and laying in 

 April and May. The nest is carefully hidden 

 in a tuft of grass, the grass stems often being 

 drawn together over it, and the bird enters and 

 leaves the nest on the side and walks away, so 

 that hardly anything remains to show the location. 

 The parents are very noisy when the nest is ap- 

 proached and leave it long before any one draws 

 near. When mating the male often soars in the 

 air, making a trill, or bows and struts before his 

 mate, spreading his wings and tail ; sometimes the 

 bird goes through the latter performance walking 

 a fence rail. 



SOLITARY SANDPIPER 

 {Helodromas solitarius) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage — Upper parts, olive- 

 slate, speckled slightly with white ; top of head and neck, 

 streaked with white ; outer upper tail-coverts, barred with white ; 

 primaries and coverts, slate-black ; tail, white, central feathers 



