GREENSHANK. 
229 
glossed with green ; the two first marked with roundish small white 
spots ; lower part of the breast, belly, upper tail coverts, and chin, 
white ; the feathers under the wings dusky, with small bars of white 
shaped like the letter V ; quills dusky ; tail white ; the two middle fea- 
thers marked with four dusky bars ; the two next on each side with 
three, the fourth with two, and the two outer with one bar ; leg’s dusky 
g-reen ; toes united at the base by a small membrane. 
The Green Sandpiper is by no means plentiful in Eng*land ; it 
mostly frequents pools and small shallow streams ; is a solitary bird ; 
comes to us about the middle of September, and continues as late as 
the end of April, when it departs northward to breed ; is sometimes 
seen in pairs before it leaves us ; is said to be found in Siberia and 
Iceland, and also in America. When disturbed it makes a very shrill 
whistling- note as it flies. We have seen this bird as early as the second 
of Aug-ust. 
GREENSHANK {Totanus glottis, Bechstein.) 
Scolopax glottis, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 245. 10. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 664. — Ind. Orn. 2. 
p. 720. 21. — Limosa grisea, Briss. 5. p. 267. 2. t. 23. f. 1. — Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 278 
La Barge variee, Buff. 7. p. 503? — Pluvialis major. Rail, Syn. p, 106. A. 8. 
p. 190. 6. — lEz7/. p. 220. t. 55. — Ib. (Angl.) p. 298. — Green-legged Horse- 
man, Albin, 2. t. 69. — Greenshank, Br. Zool. 2. No. 183. — Ib. fol. 121. t. C. 1 
Arct. Zool. 2. No. 379. — Lath. Syn. 5. p. 147. 18. — Ib. Supp. p. 245.'~-Lewm’s 
Br. Birds, 4. t. 163. — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 142. — Cinereous Godwit, Mont. Diet. 
Provincial. — Greater Plover. 
The leng-th of this species of snipe is fourteen inches ; weight about 
six ounces. Bill about two inches and a half long, dusky, slender ; 
irides hazel. The head, back and sides of the neck, and back, cine- 
reous, streaked with dusky ; from the upper mandible to the eye, a 
white streak ; the under parts, from chin to tail, white, but the white 
part is narrow down to the fore part of the neck ; lower part of the 
back and rump white ; greater wing coverts, scapulars, and three or 
four of the quill-feathers next the body, brown, glossed with green ; 
the edges of each feather scalloped with dusky and ash-coxour, some 
of them barred on both webs ; smaller coverts dusky ; quills dusky, the 
inner webs of some spotted with white ; tail white, crossed with dusky 
bars ; legs very long and slender, of a dusky green colour ; the outer 
toe united to the middle one as far as the first joint. In some, the coverts 
of the wings, scapulars, and upper part of the back, are ash-colour. Such 
are probably adults, for we have observed that the spots and bars fre- 
quently found on a variety of snipes and sandpipers, as well as others, 
in the autumn, are rarely met with in the spring. Some variation 
is also observed in the length of the bill and legs ; and the bare 
part of the thigh is in some nearly two inches above the knee, in others 
not above an inch. 
