206 
GREENSHANK. 
the down being 1 of a grey or hair-brown colour, 
instead of the more umber and ochreous tints 
which characterise the same state in the Red- 
shank. The nest was not seen, but the places 
selected, and where we found the young, were in 
low marshy hollows, in one instance surrounded 
with brushwood. The parents were extremely cla- 
morous, flying around, sometimes with rapid evolu- 
tions, at others, with the legs stretched out behind, 
and with the slow beat of the wing, peculiar to 
this and allied families during this season. They 
approached very near, and, at intervals, would 
alight on a large stone, or upon the highest twigs 
of the brushwood,* uttering at the same time their 
wild and plaintive note. The young, in their 
first plumage, we have often met with, by the 
sides of the Highland lochs, which had evidently 
been bred in this country. In the south of Scot- 
land (in our own vicinity) they are frequently, in 
autumn, observed in the evening, flying or passing 
over at a considerable elevation, as if on some 
passage or migration, and are betrayed by their 
noisy notes. During winter one or two individuals 
are seen, and occasionally procured, by the river 
side, or near some wide ditches ; and we have also 
frequently seen them, and have shot the young 
birds, on the banks of the Tweed, between Kelso 
and Coldstream. According to Mr. Yarrell, its 
occurrence in the south is, in a similar manner, 
* In Norway, Mr. Hewitson observed the Greenshank 
perched on the top of a tall tree. 
