YELLOW-SHANKS TATLER. 



( Totanus flavipes, Vieill. Bonap. Syn. No. 2G1. Scolopax flavipes, 

 Wilson, vii. p. 55. pi. 58. fig. 4. Yellow-Shanks Snipe, Penn. 

 Arct. Zool. ii. p. 468. No. 378. Phil. Museum, No. 3938.) 



Sp. Charact. — Blackish-brown, spotted with black and white; 

 rump partly white ; tail dusky- white, barred with brown ; legs and 

 feet yellow ; bill black, slightly recurved ; tarsus longer than the 

 bill. Length of the individual about 10 inches (male.) Female 

 1^ inches longer. — Winter plumage brownish-ash; the throat 

 white, and thinly mottled. 



The Yellow-Shanks, in certain situations, may be consid- 

 ered as the most common bird of the family in America. 

 Its summer residence, or breeding station, even extends 

 from the Middle States to the northern extremity of the con- 

 tinent, where it is seen, solitary or in pairs, on the banks of 

 rivers, lakes, or in marshes, in every situation contiguous to 

 the ocean. And though the young and old are found through- 

 out the warm season of the year in so many places, the nest 

 and eggs are yet entirely unknown. Calculating from the 

 first appearance of the brood abroad, they commence laying 



