THE GREENSHANK 



The bird in the plate shows the dark markings on the mantle and scapulars 

 assumed in the breeding season. In winter the upper parts in general are a paler 

 grey, when, excepting the colour of the feet and legs, the present species resembles 

 the Greater Yellowshank, both species having a slight upward curve in their bills. 



THE MARSH-SANDPIPER. 



Totanus stagnatilis, Bechstein. 

 Plate 68. 



This species, which is very like a diminutive Greenshank, though its legs are 

 proportionately longer and its body more slenderly built, is a very rare wanderer to 

 Great Britain, where only four occurrences have been noted, the first at Tring, 

 Hertfordshire, October 1887, two at Rye Harbour, Sussex, June 1909, and the last 

 at Bodiam Marsh, in the same county, in July 1910. In summer the Marsh- 

 Sandpiper inhabits the south-eastern parts of Europe, ranging eastwards to 

 Turkestan and Siberia, while in the winter season it retires southwards to Africa, 

 India, Ceylon, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia. 



According to the late H. E. Dresser's Manual of Palcearctic Birds, vol. ii. p. 788, 

 " It usually breeds near, but occasionally at some distance from water, in grassy 

 places, its nest resembling that of its congeners, and its eggs, four in number, are 

 usually laid in June or July, and are ochreous buff, sometimes with a faint oliva- 

 ceous tinge, with pale purplish-brown shell-markings and rich dark brown surface 

 spots and blotches." 



The bird represented in the plate is in summer plumage. According to Dresser, 

 in the work referred to above, " in winter the upper parts are brownish-grey, some- 

 what marked with white, the wing coverts darker ; under parts and axillaries pure 

 white." 



THE RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 

 Macrorhamphus griseus (J. F. Gmelin). 

 Plate 68. 



This so-called Snipe, which is now known to have more affinity to the Sand- 

 pipers, occasionally straggles to the British Islands in autumn, some twenty-two 

 occurrences having been recorded. It breeds in high northern latitudes in America, 



iv. 49 G 



