349 



THE YELLOW SHANKS TATLER. 



with something like a warble, as they approach their companions on 

 the strand. The cry then varies to ^peet, weet weet weet, beginning 

 high and gradually declining into a somewhat plaintive tone. As 

 the season advances, our little lively marine wanderers often trace the 

 streams some distance into the interior, nesting usually in the fiech 

 meadows among the grass, sometimes even near the house, and I have 

 seen their eg.i^s laid in a strawberry bed, and the young and old 

 pleased with their allowed protection, familiarly fed and probed the 

 margin of an adjoining duck pond, for their usual fare of worms and 

 insects. 



THE YELLOW SHAXKS TATLER. 



YELLOW SHANKS TATLER 



The Yellow Shanks, in certain situations, may be considered as the 



most common 

 ^ "L r bird of the family 



in America. Its 

 summer residence 

 or breeding sta- 

 tion, even extends 

 from the Middle 

 States to the 

 northern extrem- 

 ity of the conti 

 nt'ut, where it is 

 seen, solitary or 

 in pairs, on the 

 banks of rivers, 

 lakes, or in 

 marshes, in every 

 situation contigu- 

 ous to the ocean. And though the young and old are found 

 throughout the warm season of the year in so many places, tlie nest 

 and eggs are yet entirely unknown. Calculating from the first ap- 

 pearance of the brood abroad, they commence laying by the middle 

 of June, and are seen in this neighborhood at that season. It resides 

 chiefly in the salt marshes, and frequents low flats and estuaries, at 

 the ebb of the tide, wading in the mud, in quest of worms, insects, 

 and other small marine and fluvatile 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 tlie 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 utters a simple, low, and rather 

 hoarse call, which passes from one to the other, at the moment ot 

 rising on the wing. It is very impatient of any intrusion on ita 

 haunts, and thus often betraying, like the preceding, the approach of 

 the sportsman to the less vigilant of the feathered tribes, by flymg 

 around his head, with hanging legs and drooping wings, uttering ita 

 incessant and querulous cries. 



