THE GREENSHANK. 
219 
at Bleniierville, near Tralee, when the tide is ont/^* The lo- 
calities which have been named in connexion with the greenshank, 
are all of a marine or estuary nature. About inland fresh water, 
I have not known it to be killed in the north of Ireland, and 
once, only, on the part of the river Lagan subject to the flow of 
the tide, near to the Eoyal Botanic Garden, Belfast. The bird 
had previously frequented the place for a fortnight. Temminck 
mentions the gravelly borders of rivers as frequented by this bird, 
and very rarely those of the sea. 
I am not aware of their breeding in Ireland, but Mr. E. 
Chute, who considers greenshanks to be common in Kerry, 
believes that they breed at Caragh Lake, in that county, from the 
circumstance of his having seen them at the upper part of it in 
pairs, at different times during summer, though he never found 
their nests. The people of the neighbourhood assured him 
that the birds remained there the entire summer. The lake is 
about two-and-a-half miles from the sea, and situated between 
mountains ; it is five miles in length. The greenshank was 
observed at Clifden, or Eoundstone Bay, Connemara, in July 
1844.t 
The contrast of the snowy-white and dark plumage renders 
the greenshank an attractive bird ; it varies considerably in 
size. The redshank and it are considered, by some persons, to 
be the worst eating of all the shore birds that are commonly 
served up at table. A bird-preserver has remarked to me that 
the fat of this bird is white, and not orange-yellow, like that of 
the redshank. 
When H.M.S. Beacon was in the Bay of Navarino, in April 
1841, one of the offlcers, on the 29th of that month, brought 
me a greenshank, shot by him on the sea-beach, contiguous to 
an extensive marsh, which I subsequently visited. In a proper 
climate this would be a most suitable breeding-haunt for the 
species, and, as two or three more birds were seen, I could not 
* Mr. E. Clmte ; — wlio once saw a large Hock of greenshanks there, 
t Eev. G. Robinson. 
