YELLOW-SHANKS TATLER. 153 



by the middle of June, and are seen in this neighborhood at 

 that season. It resides chiefly in the salt marshes, and fre- 

 quents low flats and estuaries, at the ebb of the tide, wading 

 in the mud, in quest of worms, insects, and other small 

 marine and fluviatile animals. They seldom leave these 

 maritime situations, except driven from the coast by storms, 

 when they may occasionally be seen in low and wet meadows, 

 as far inland as the extent of tide-water. The Yellow- 

 Shanks has a sharp whistle of three or four short notes, which 

 it repeats, when alarmed and when flying, and sometimes ut- 

 ters a simple, low, and rather hoarse call, which passes from 

 one to the other, at the moment of rising on the wing. It is 

 very impatient of any intrusion on its haunts, and thus 

 often betraying, like the preceding, the approach of the 

 sportsman to the less vigilant of the feathered tribes, by 

 flying around his head, with hanging legs and drooping 

 wings, uttering its incessant and querulous cries. 



How far they proceed to the south in the course of the 

 winter, is yet unknown ; they, however, I believe, leave the 

 boundaries of the Union. At the approach of winter, pre- 

 vious to their departure for the south, they are observed to 

 collect in small flocks, and halt for a time on the shores of 

 Hudson's Bay. Accumulated numbers are now also seen to 

 visit New England, though many probably pass on to their hy- 

 bernal retreats by an inland route, like the preceding, having 

 indeed been seen in the spring, on the shores of the Missouri, 

 in particular situations, by Mr. Say. They also seem to re- 

 side, no less in the interior than on the coast, as they were ob* 

 served on the shores of Red River of Lake Winipique (lat. 

 49°,) on the 11th of August, by the same gentleman ; thus 

 subsisting indiflerently on the productions of fresh as well as 

 salt water. At the approach of autumn small flocks, here 

 also, accompany the Upland Plover ( Totanus Bartramius,) 

 flying high, and whistling, as they proceed inland to feed, but 



