BIRDS 397 



leaving the nest has often led to the discovery of its eggs. 

 Both sexes take their share of incubation. At least, I can 

 answer for two instances in which the male was captured when 

 sitting on the nest. Four eggs usually constitute a clutch, but 

 five and even six eggs have exceptionally been found, all laid 

 apparently by the same bird. Although the Bedshank is 

 chiefly a coast bird, a few pairs nest in the interior of Cum- 

 berland and Westmorland. Prior to 1885 Mr. Bailey reported 

 to me a colony of Bedshanks established in Caldbeck. The 

 Bev. B. Bower found two or three pairs nesting at Newbiggin 

 tarn, Westmorland, in 1890; a fact verified by myself in the 

 season following. Mr. Hutchinson identified an egg of the 

 Bedshank taken on Scouts Scar near Kendal in the summer of 

 1891. 



SPOTTED BEDSHANK. 



Totanus fuscus (L. ). 



This Bedshank is quite unknown to Lakeland in summer 

 plumage. In autumn it has sometimes straggled across country 

 to our western estuaries, though even on the Solway Firth it is 

 the rarest of occasional visitants, and appears only in immature 

 dress. The first specimen locally authenticated was shot at 

 Cardunock on October 13th, 1830, and stuffed for T. C. 

 Heysham by James Cooper, who saw others in August 1833 

 and August 1840. Mr. Garnet of Bassenthwaite possesses a 

 specimen shot some years ago near Kirkby-Stephen, Westmor- 

 land, the only example that is known to have been killed in 

 that county. Mr. W. Nicol has observed several examples upon 

 the marshes near Silloth during the last fifteen years, but he 

 never had the good fortune to shoot one of these rare and wary 

 birds until the 18th of August 1888. On that occasion he 

 observed a single Spotted Bedshank feeding upon the muddy 

 bottom of a large creek, upon the flanks of a small party of the 

 Common Bedshank. He had spent ten minutes watching the 

 stranger boring or tunnelling in the mud, when the birds rose 

 and flew up the creek. He followed and shot the Dusky 

 Bedshank. On another occasion he observed a Peregrine in 



