totanus

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of birds of the family Scolopacidæ, including some of the best-known sandpipers, tattlers, telltales, gambets, or horsemen, as the redshank, green-shank, yellowshank, and wood-sandpiper. Several are common British species: the greenshank, or green sandpiper, T. ochropus; the wood-sandpiper, T. glareola; the redshank, T. calidris; the spotted redshank, T. fuscus. In North America the best-known are the greater and lesser yellowshanks, T. melanoleucus and T. flavipes. The genus formerly contained all the Totaninæ (which see), See cuts under greenshank, redshank, and yellowshank.