TOTANUS GLOTTIS. 
843 
at Mozambique; and it strays eastward still to the Seychelles, in which it has been noticed by Mr. E. Newton 
on Mahe and Curieuse islands. In South Africa it winters, and has been obtained in Natal and on the 
Limpopo river, where Mr. E. Buckley writes, in the ‘ Ibis/ that it is common. Layard remarks that in Cape 
colony it is common, and found on almost all the vleys throughout the country. 
In Damara Land it is plentiful ; and up the west coast of the continent it has been obtained in Benguela, 
Gaboon, and Prince’s Island, also on the Gold Coast and in Senegambia. In Madeira it has occurred, 
according to Yon Heuglin; and it is a straggler to some parts of the coast of North America. 
Habits . — This very fine Sandpiper frequents the same situations as the rest of its group, being found on 
the borders of tidal rivers, salt creeks, lakes, and lagoons, on sand banks (about which its long legs enable it to 
walk before they are left bare by the tide), and also on the open beach. It is also, to a certain extent, a fresh- 
water species, frequenting the borders of tanks, jlieels, and marshes ; but about such localities it is found 
chiefly on passage and while breeding. I have always in the winter observed it, either singly, two or three 
together, or in little companies of not more than half a dozen, and it is frequently accompanied by a few other 
birds, such as its lesser companion, the Little Greenshank, and perhaps one or two Curlew and Lesser Stints. 
When wading in water, however, it is only the first-named bird, owing to the length of its legs, that is able to 
accompany it. While feeding, its manners are somewhat those of the Common Redshank; it walks hither and 
thither, pecking on one side and the other like that species ; but it can always be recognized by its greater 
height, and, when it flies, by its peculiar note and the less amount of white displayed. It is tolerably wary, 
but will often allow itself to be walked up to within shot ; when it rises it utters a loud note unlike that of 
other species of its group, and which consists of three syllables, the two loudest of which have been likened to 
lung tang. It feeds on small crabs to a considerable extent, which it finds on the muddy foreshores of tropical 
lagoons ; but it also consumes aquatic insects, for which it searches in wet marshes and salt flats, near the 
edge of the tide, which arc only covered just at high water. In little pools lying in such localities it may 
often be seen wading. The flesh of the Greenshank is very good eating, as there is an absence of any fishy taste 
about it, and it is not at all dry. 
In the spring, prior to migration, it collects in large flocks of fifty or move, and shortly afterwards leaves 
for northern latitudes. In the Stanowoi mountains, Middendorff noticed it perching, “ with much noise,” on 
the tops of low trees growing round the morasses. In the Petchora valley, Mr. Seebohm found it frequenting 
marshy hollows and pools in the -woods. 
The flight of the Greenshank is very swift, and it has a habit of suddenly alighting, which is a somewhat 
difficult matter while flying with its accustomed speed ; and to enable it to stop itself it half closes its wings 
and sways its body with a jerking motion from side to side, and then, throwing up its head, spreads out its 
wings in a position slightly inclined to the vertical, which at once brings it to a halt. I have on several 
occasions noticed this performance, and I find that other naturalists have observed the same thing. It is said 
to become very tame in confinement. 
Nidification . — The Greenshank Breeds in May and June; on the 12th of the former month Middendorff 
found it already at its breeding-haunts in North-eastern Siberia; and its eggs were taken by Messrs. Seebohm 
and Harvie Brown on the Petchora on the 11th of June. The nest is said to consist of a hollow scraped in 
the ground, lined w r ith grass-stalks, feathers, leaves, and other dried vegetation. 
The eggs of the Greenshank are four in member, and vary somewhat in size and shape, some being broad 
and pyriform, and others very long and pointed, without being much compressed at the small end. In colour 
they are mostly stone-buff or greyish buff, some having a slight olivaceous tinge. The markings vary from 
large blackish-sepia clouds, few in number, but distributed over the wliole egg, to numerous rather smudgy 
blots and longitudinal dashes of lighter brown, mingled with bluish-grey blotches of several shades scattered 
over the whole surface. Small specks and short linear marks are mingled with these in some eggs, and large 
bluish dashes underlie at the obtuse end the first-named dark clouds of blackish brown, some of which run 
in a transverse direction. An egg of the broad type measures 1*87 by l - 35 inch, and of the elongated type 
2-Q8 by L27. A smaller egg than either is l - 86 long by L24 broad. The specimens from which I take 
these descriptions are in the possession of Mr. Dresser, and were collected in Lapland and Finmark. 
5 Q 
