300 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



GREATER YELLOW-LEGS (Totanus melanoleucus) . 



Common or local names: Winter Yellow-leg; Winter; Cucu; Large Cucu; Big 

 Yellow-leg; Greater Tell-tale; Tell-tale God wit; Tattler. 



Length. — 12.50 to 15 inches; bill 2 to 2.20. 



Adult in Spring. — Blackish and light gray above, speckled with white; 

 tail white, barred with blackish; basal half of the tail and upper tail 

 coverts mainly white; under parts white, streaked on throat and neck 

 with dusky, and on breast and sides spotted and barred with same; iris 

 brown; bill black or greenish black; legs long and slender, chrome yellow. 



Adult in Winter, and Young. — Similar, but without the blackish above; 

 below streaked only on the neck and upper breast; legs yellow. 



Field Marks. — Long, slender yellow legs; white or whitish tail and upper 

 tail coverts. Easily recognized by its manner of flight, alternately 

 scaling and flapping, curving its dark wings downward. 



Notes. — A soft, fiutelike whistle, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, 

 when (Chapman). A prolonged rolling call or a succession of quick 

 calls (C. W. Townsend). 



Season. — Common migrant, mostly coastwise; early April to mid June 

 and early July to November; a few non-breeding birds occur, or 

 formerly occurred, in summer. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds from Alaska and southern 

 Mackenzie to southern British Columbia, Ungava, Labrador and Anti- 

 costi Island ; winters from southern California and Georgia, casually in 

 North Carolina, south to Patagonia; occurs in Bermuda in migration. 



