WATER BIRDS. 193 



and summer dress, but those which linger until June assume the nearly perfect breeding 

 plumage. Autumn specimens are also more or less intermediate, but the winter plumage 

 predominates. 



106. Lesser Yellowlegs. Totanus flavipes (Gmel.). (255) 



Synonyms: Yellowlegs, Summer Yellowlegs, Little Yellowlegs, Little Tell-tale, Yellow- 

 shanks. — Scolopax flavipes, Gmel., 1789. — Gambetta flavipes, Bonap., 1856. — ^Totanus 

 fla^dpes, Vieill., and authors generally. 



Known by its close resemblance to the preceding, and its smaller size. 

 It has the same nearly straight bill, less than 1| inches long, also the same 

 yellow legs, and the white rump slightly barred with black. 



Distribution. — America in general, breeding in the cold temperate and 

 subarctic districts, and migrating south in winter to southern South Am- 

 erica. Less common in w^estern than in eastern North America. 



In Michigan this bird has practically the same habits and distribution 

 as the Greater Yellowlegs, which it so closely resembles, and with which 

 it is commonly found. Its notes are practically the same, its feeding 

 habits identical, and it answers the whistle, comes to the decoys, and 

 behaves in every way precisely like its larger relative. The main difference 

 observable is that the Lesser Yellowlegs is commonly much more abundant 

 than the Greater Yellowlegs, being seen frequently in flocks of 100 or 200 

 individuals, while the Greater Yellowlegs is seen lay dozens or scores. 



In many locahties it Hngers until the first or even the second week in 

 June, and by the middle of July flocks begin to return from the north. 

 ]\Ir. Swales noted the first migrants at Detroit on July 9, 1905, and ]\Ir. 

 J. Claire Wood says they were back July 1, 1906. Our latest fall record 

 at Lansing is October 28, 1906, when a flock of eleven was found wading 

 and swimming in a pool near the College. 



Its nesting range seems to be precisely the same as for the Greater 

 Yellowlegs, and like that species it has been found nesting in northern 

 Illinois and in Wisconsin, but not in Michigan. The eggs are buff, distinctly 

 spotted with dark brown and purplish gray, and average 1.73 by 1.14 

 inches. 



Its food consists mainly of the smaller forms of animal life which abound 

 in shallow waters, including large numbers of insects and insect larvre. 

 In Nebraska Professor Aughey found locusts in five stomachs taken in 

 October 1874, as well as large numbers of other insects. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill straight or very slightly curved upward, and nasal groove extending more than 

 half way to tip. Colors of plumage, bill, and legs essentially the same as in the Greater 

 Yellowlegs, the summer and winter dress varying also in the same way. 



Length 9.50 to 11 inches; wing 6.10 to 6.65; culmen 1.30 to 1.55; tarsus 2 to 2.15. 



107. Solitary Sandpiper. Helodromas solitarius solitarius (Wilson). (256) 



Synonyms: Big Sandpiper, Tip-up, Teeterer. — Tringa solitaria, Wils., 1813. — Totanus 

 solitarius, Aud., 1839, Coues, 1872. — Rhyacophilus solitarius, Cass, in Baird, 1858. — 

 Totanus chloropygias, Vieill., 1816, Nutt., 1834. 



Figure 55. 



Slightly larger than the common Tip-up or Spotted Sandpiper, for which 

 it is likely to be mistaken; but it is always darker above (sometimes quite 

 25 



