398 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



pursuit of a Spotted Kedshank (which he had been vainly trying 

 to out-manoeuvre himself), which was driven over towards the 

 Scottish side of the Sol way. On the 4th of September 1889 

 Nicol saw another Spotted Kedshank under the brow edge of 

 the marsh, but failed to secure the prize. The following day 

 the bird was shot in a creek near his house by a young lad, who 

 did not know it from the Common Eedshank. Luckily, he 

 showed it to Nicol, and the specimen was sent to Mackenzie of 

 Carlisle, at whose house I examined it in the flesh. On the 2d 

 of September 1890 a fowler named Story shot another immature 

 Spotted Redshank on the Wampool estuary. In October 1891 

 Nicol recognised the call-note of a Spotted Redshank on the 

 Waver, and subsequently saw the bird more than once when 

 punt-shooting. It frequented the edge of the estuary, and did 

 not enter the creeks. When disturbed, this bird generally 

 flew a considerable distance before alighting again. 



GREENSHANK. 



Totanus canescens (Gmel.). 



Of birds that are always scarce upon the estuaries of North- 

 west England, but which return with unbroken regularity to 

 their special haunts, I know none more interesting than the shy 

 and vigilant Greenshank. It is a bird of wide distribution; not 

 a cosmopolitan like the Turnstone, it is true, but covering the 

 length and breadth of many regions in the vast journeys which 

 it annually performs in visiting and returning from its breeding- 

 grounds. Iceland and Greenland know it not, nor does it 

 appear to visit the Faroes ; but from the north-west of Scotland 

 its breeding range extends across Russia to Siberia in Asia. 

 In Scotland, the county that it most affects appears to be 

 Sutherland. It is local, almost rare as a nesting bird in the 

 Hebrides, and appears to be absent in summer from the lowlands 

 of Scotland, though I have heard rumours of its nesting in more 

 than one border county. Curiously enough, it appears to be 

 absent in the breeding season from Ireland, though suitable 

 breeding-places must be very numerous. In the north of Europe 

 the exigencies of climate induce the Greenshank to nest later 



