COMMON REDSHANK. 



TOT ANUS CALIDRIS {Linn.). 



Tringa calidris, Linn. S. N. i. p. 252 (1766). 



Totanus calidris, Naum. viii. p. 95 ; Macg. iv. p. 333 ; Hewit- 



son, ii. p. 329 ; Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 469 ; Dresser, viii. 



p. 157. 



Chevalier- Gambette, French ; Rothfiissiger Wasserldufer, 

 Gambette, German ; Gamba roja, Pajarillo, Spanish, 

 Archibebe (Malaga). 



This pretty bird is probably only too well known to 

 those of my readers who are given to Snipe-shooting, 

 from its frequency on their favourite grounds, and, from 

 a sportsman's point of view, its detestable habit of 

 flying screaming over the marshes, thereby putting all 

 the Snipes upon the " qui-vive." Admitting this 

 charge against our bird, it is withal a very great 

 ornament to many of our native districts, which, without 

 bird-life, would be dreary indeed ; and as it is perfectly 

 harmless, worthless from a culinary point of view, and 

 one of the many of our British species that must by 

 degrees become extinct as a resident, from the draining 

 and reclamation of its present breeding-localities, 1 say 

 by all means spare the Redshank. In the spring and 

 summer this species is to be found in suitable localities 



