i62 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Family— S COL OP A CID^. 



Spotted, or Dusky Redshank. 



Tot anus fuscus, LiXN. 



THIS bird is rather unfortunate in its English names, for the Common 

 Redshank is almost as much "spotted," and the "dusky" summer plumage 

 is seldom to be seen in Britain ; however, the latter name seems most appropriate. 

 The Dusky Redshank has never been absolutely ascertained to breed south of the 

 Arctic Circle, but, beyond that, breeds from Scandinavia to Eastern Siberia, being, 

 ho\ve^•er, local in its distribution. In spring and autumn it passes along the 

 West European and East Asiatic coast-line — migrating, also, partly across country 

 — wintering in Southern Europe, Xorthem Africa, down to the Equator, India 

 (rarely in Ceylon), Burmah, and China. It has not occurred in the New World, 

 nor in the Faeroes, or Iceland. With us it is chieflj- found in small numbers on 

 the east coast, in spring (April to June), from the Humber to the South Foreland, 

 and from August to November in autumn. It is most numerous in August and 

 September, perhaps, but is at all times a scarce bird. Elsewhere, with us, it is 

 only a rare straggler, and in Ireland only three or four in all have been obtained. 



Description of adult in summer {i Karesuando, 24, 5, '81): bill brown, dull 

 reddish-orange at base, and more than 2\ inches in length; iris umber-brown; 

 head, neck, and underparts general!}-, dark sooty-black, with a slaty tinge, flecked 

 on the neck minutely with white dashes, which on the breast become narrow 

 indistinct white bars, increasing in size to the flanks and under tail-coverts ; back 

 black, with white and dusky white tips to the feathers, most conspicuous on the 

 wing-coverts, and forming a saw-tooth pattern on the long tertiaries ; lower back 

 white ; rump and tail white, narrowlj^ barred with sootj^ black ; primaries sooty, 

 with white shafts to all, and a good deal of white freckling on the inner ones and 

 the secondaries ; axillaries pure white ; legs and feet deep purple red. Length 

 12 to 13 inches, closed wing 6i to 6j. Female often, not always, a little the 

 largest. 



Adult in winter (Norfolk, ?, 9, 12, '85) much like the corresponding dress 

 of the last species, from which it diffiers in the length of the bill (2^ as compared 

 with I J inches), the conspicuous white ej-ebrow and throat, the whiter under parts 



