The Redshank. ^59 



J^amily—SCOL OPA CID^. 



Redshank. 



Totanus calidris, LiNN. 



A WELL-KNOWN bird Avith. us. It breeds in most parts of Europe as far 

 north as Iceland, the Faeroes, Northern Norway, and the coasts of Russian 

 Xapland (We found a nest with four eggs near Sviatoi Nos in 1895). East of the 

 White Sea (I quote from Seebohm) its northern limit drops to 58°, in Siberia and 

 Turkestan to 55°. In Northern Africa (which is, north of the Sahara, a part of 

 ^Europe, zoSlogically) it breeds, and to the coasts of the rest of Africa is a winter 

 visitor ; and in Asia, winters in India, Ceylon, Burmah, and Indo-Malaya, passing 

 Japan and China on migration. With us it is a sea-coast bird, some retiring 

 inland to nest in marshy places and wet river-meadows ; in most parts of the 

 ■coast abundant ; on August 22nd, 1889, in my notes made on the Yorkshire coast, 

 I find the entry, "anything like the Redshanks, I never saw before,; one flock of 

 over one hundred within thirty yards of me ; I must have seen over one thousand 

 iere to-day." That year there was an exceptional migration of them. 



Description of adult in summer ( ? shot off eggs, Ljosavatn, Iceland, July 4th, 

 1885, etc.): bill dark brown at tip, yellow at base (m inches long); iris umber; 

 •crown, back, and wings, ash-brown, with darker shaft-streaks to the feathers; on 

 the scapulars and tertials these widen into zig-zag transverse bars, and are mingled 

 with a few light rufescent spots ; the greater wing-coverts have a few dark 

 marginal spots and white edges ; primaries very dark brown, the first only with a 

 ■white shaft, the innermost with white inner webs, freckled with brown ; secondaries 

 nearly white, with a few brown dashes ; lower back and rump white ; upper tail- 

 coverts white, barred narrowly with sooty ; tail white, the central pair of feathers 

 •clouded with brown, and all narrowly barred with sooty-black; sides of head, 

 throat and neck, breast, sides of body, and under tail-coverts, white (duskier on 

 the breast), striped, spotted, or barred with dark brown ; axillaries white, with a 

 few subterminal streaks; centre of belly white; legs and feet vivid orange-red; 

 claws black. Length 11 inches, closed wing 6|. The male is rather smaller. 



Adult in winter (^ Bamborough, 28, 11, '77, etc.) is much duskier and more 

 uniform in tint ; the shaft- stripes of the upper parts are inconspicuous ; there are 

 & few minute black dots on the scapulars and tertiaries, and the white rump of 



