THE REDSHANK. (Totanus calidris.)
This bird has received its name from the colour of its legs, which are of a crimson red. In size it is between the lapwing and the snipe, and is sometimes called the Pool Snipe. The head and back are of a dusky ash-colour, spotted with black, the throat party-coloured black and white, the black being drawn down along the feathers. The breast is whiter, with fewer spots. The Redshank delights in the fen countries, and in wet and marshy grounds, where it breeds and rears its young. The female lays four whitish eggs, with olive-coloured dashes, and marked with irregular spots of black. Pennant and Latham say, that it flies round its nest when disturbed, making a noise like a lapwing. It is not so common on the sea-shore as several others of its kindred. We must here observe, that this bird has often been mistaken for others. The fact is, that several birds changing their plumage, and increasing or diminishing their size according to their age, the season of the year, and the climate they live in, set all nomenclators at defiance, and confound all classifications.
