THE GREENSHANK. 631 



Pood. — Insects and their larvae, chiefly aquatic, such as Notonecta 

 glauca and Naucoris cimicoides, as well as various species of water- 

 beetles ; freshwater mollusca, chiefly small univalves, worms, small 

 •Crustacea (shrimps) ; tadpoles and small frogs as well as newts 

 {Triton cristatus) and small fish. Also fragments of Potamogeton. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Uncommon passage -migrant (late 

 April-June and Aug.-Oct., exceptional winter). Chiefly Kent to 

 Yorks., occasional south, and rare west coasts England and inland, 

 very rare Scotland (about twenty-five times, mostly in south-west) 

 and in Ireland (twenty or more times, chiefly in Moy estuary (Mayo 

 and Sligo)). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, 

 winters in Mediterranean countries and Africa, mostly north of 

 Equator (one record S. Africa), India, Burmah, Japan and China. 



TRINGA NEBULARIA 



415. Tringa nebularia (Gunner.)— THE GREENSHANK. 



Scolopax nebularia Gunnerus, Leem, Beskr. Finm. Lapp., p. 251 



(1767— Norway). 



Scolopax Cineracea Latham, Gen. Synops., Suppl., p. 292 (1787 — Ex 



Gen. Synops., in, i, p. 145, and Pennant, Brit. Zool., 11, no. 180, pi. lxvi. 



Spalding in Lincolnshire). 



Scolopax canescens Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, 11, p. 668 (1789 — Lincolnshire. 



Ex Pennant, I.e.). 



Totanus canescens (Gmelin), Yarrell, in, p. 483 ; Saunders, p. 619. 



{Totanus glottis of many authors, but Linnaeus's name glottis being more 



than doubtful we do not adopt it. ) 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Fore-head white, 

 sometimes spotted sepia ; crown streaked sepia or ash-brown, 

 leathers edged white ; nape same but streaks paler ; mantle and 

 scapulars ash-brown, feathers with sepia shafts and fringed white 

 and more or less bordered, shaded or notched sepia ; back and rump 

 white, sometimes some feathers of back streaked sepia ; upper tail- 

 coverts white, long ones barred or irregularly marked ash-brown ; 

 eye-stripe white ; loral streak sepia, feathers edged white (ill- 

 defined in some) ; cheeks, ear-coverts and sides of neck white finely 

 streaked ash-brown ; sides of breast white, feathers with sepia 

 shaft -streaks and irregular markings and f recklings ; remaining 

 under -parts white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts irregularly 

 barred and marked sepia, axillaries often more or less white ; central 

 pair tail-feathers white, broadly and irregularly barred or more or 

 less freckled ash -brown, in others central pair pale drab -grey barred 

 or mottled ash -brown, remainder white more or less barred, marked 

 or mottled sepia or ash-brown (varying considerably individually) ; 

 primaries black-brown paler on inner webs, inner ones (sometimes 

 all) more or less mottled white and sepia on inner webs, and faintly 

 tipped white ; secondaries ash-brown narrowly bordered white, 

 inner webs more or less ashy-white, irregularly mottled or barred 

 ash-brown ; innermost and coverts as scapulars ; primary-coverts 



