The Spotted- or Dusky Redshank. '63 



and more white spotting on the wing, and the longer tarsus (2I inches as com- 

 pared with i^ inches). Feet and legs dull orange red. 



Young in autumn {S Barton, Lincolnshire, September, 1880; i Foochow, 25, 

 10, 84) : bill 2A inches. As compared with Common Redshanks in the same 

 stage, the back is much more sooty and more spotted with white, as are also the 

 wings ; the whole of the underparts, except the chin, are spotted and barred with 

 dusky. 



The nestling can be distinguished from the Common Redshank's by its duskier 

 colour generally, the black crown larger in area, and the legs and bill already 

 proportionately longer. 



Obs. — The longer bill and tarsus will separate this species from the foregoing 

 at all ages, and confirmatory tests are the small amount of white on the secondaries, 

 which, in this bird, is freckled with dusky at all ages, and which ought to decide 

 the species on the wing within gunshot ; also the white shafts to all the primaries, 

 not the first only. 



John Wolley's account of this bird's nesting in Finland, in 1854, as it was 

 the first, so is it still the best. The nest is a hollow in the ground on a clearing 

 in a pine-forest, often at a considerable distance from the nearest marsh or water, 

 and usually on a dry hill or mound. The bird seems often to choose deliberately 

 a clearing made by forest fires, the blackened ground matching exactly its own 

 dusky back. The nest hollow is sometimes amongst dwarf heather, sometimes 

 perfectly in the open, on ground covered with lichen, and the nest has sometimes 

 a few dead leaves as a lining. The sitting bird remains on the eggs almost until 

 it is touched, but I have been unable to find any information as to whether both 

 sexes incubate. The birds are otherwise so wary that Wolley found it impossible 

 to watch either of them to the nest, which can only be stumbled upon, therefore, 

 by chance. The eggs are laid at the end of May ; their colour varies from stone 

 buff to pale green, with blotches and spots of pale neutral tint and dark umber; 

 they measure about i|- inches by ij, and are therefore larger than those of the 

 Common Redshank, as they are also more brightly coloured. 



Little remains to be added, except that the Dusky Redshank is much more 

 a fresh-water bird, and frequenter of lakes, marshes, and rivers, than a shore bird, 

 and is only found near the latter at times of migration. It shews a particular 

 preference for soft muddy shores of lakes and large rivers, rather than for such 

 as are shingly or sandy, and often feeds in water some inches deep. It can 

 swim well, and often does so voluntarily ; when swimming, its body floats almost 

 as buoyantly and as much above the surface of the water as a duck's. It is 

 mostly met with on our shores singly and alone, (for this species seldom consorts 



