The Young when fully fledged is similar to the old female.
THE GREENSHANK.
Totanus glottis, Bechst.
PLATE CCLXIX. Male.
While on Sand Key, which is about six miles distant from Cape Sable of the Floridas, in lat. 24° 57´ north, and 81° 45´ long, west of Greenwich, I shot three birds of this species on the 28th of May 1832. I had at first supposed them to be Tell-tale Godwits, as they walked on the bars and into the shallows much in the same manner, and, on obtaining them, imagined they were new; but on shewing them to my assistant Mr Ward, who was acquainted with the Greenshank of Europe, he pronounced them to be of that species, and I have since ascertained the fact by a comparison of specimens. They were all male birds, and I observed no material difference in their plumage. We did not find any afterwards; but it is probable that we had seen some previously, although we did not endeavour to procure them, having supposed them to be Tell-tales. Almost all the birds seen in the Floridas at this date had young or eggs; and this circumstance increased my surprise at finding all the three individuals to be males. They had been shot merely because they offered a tempting opportunity, being all close together, and it is not often that one can kill three Tell-tales at once. As I am not acquainted with the habits of this species, I have applied to my friend Mr Macgillivray, who has kindly furnished me with the following notice of them as observed in the Hebrides.
“The Greenshank is seen in the Outer Hebrides early in spring, and generally departs in October, although I have observed individuals there in November. Previous to the commencement of the breeding-season, and after the young are fledged, it resorts to the shores of the sea, frequenting pools of brackish-water at the head of the sand-fords, and the shallow margins of bays and creeks. Its habits are very similar to those of the Redshank, with which it associates in autumn. It is extremely shy and vigilant, insomuch that one can very seldom shoot it, unless after it has deposited its eggs. Many individuals remain during the summer, when they are to be found by the lakes in the interior, of which the number in Uist, Harris, and Lewis is astonishing. At that season it is very easily discovered, for when you are perhaps more than a quarter of a mile distant, it rises into the air with clamorous cries, alarming all the birds in its neighbourhood, flies round the place of its nest, now wheeling off to a distance, again advancing towards you, and at intervals alighting by the edge of the lake, when it continues its cries, vibrating its body all the while. I once found a nest of this bird in the island of Harris. It was at a considerable distance from the water, and consisted of a few fragments of heath and some blades of grass, placed in a shallow cavity scraped in the turf, in an exposed place. The nest, in fact, resembled that of the Golden Plover, the Curlew, or the Lapwing. The eggs, placed with their narrow ends together, were four in number, pyriform, larger than those of the Lapwing, and smaller than those of the Golden Plover, equally pointed with the latter, but proportionally broader and more rounded at the larger end than either. The dimensions of one of them, still remaining with me, are two inches exactly, by one inch and three-eighths; the ground colour is a very pale yellowish-green, sprinkled all over with irregular spots of dark brown, intermixed with blotches of light purplish-grey, the spots, and especially the blotches, more numerous on the larger end. Although in summer these birds may be seen in many parts of the islands, they are yet very rare, a pair being to be met with only at an interval of several miles. In other parts of Scotland they are seen chiefly in autumn, but are of rare occurrence.”
It is curious how nearly by this account the habits of the Greenshank correspond with those of the Tell-tale Godwit, Totanus melanoleucos.
Scolopax Glottis, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 245.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 270.
Totanus Glottis, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. part ii. p. 659.—Selby, Illust. vol. ii. p. 86.
Greenshank, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 618.
Male in Summer. Plate CCLXIX.