\\ Iktc ilicy ,i;() has never been found out, but in the la?t week (jf Marcli a twitter- 

 ing is heard far overhead and they are again at the Gulf coast. 



The migration season is full of perils for the birds and the casualty lists are 

 large ; many are drowned when storms catch them over large bodies of water, 

 many others are killed in striking high objects. The Washington Monument and 

 the Statue of Liberty have both killed many migrants. The lights of the lighl- 

 liouse lure many birds to their death also ; a fixed white light is the deadliest for 

 it acts like a magnet on the 1)irds; a flashing light frightens the birds and ;i red 

 light is avoided by them. 



The Yellow -Legs {Totanus flavlpes) 

 By Lynds Jones 



Synonyms. — Tattler ; Lesser Tattler. 



Description. — Adult hi summer: Head and neck all round (save throat), 

 and breast, finely streaked and dusky, on white or ashy-white ground, and mark- 

 ings on the sides of breast broader and heavier, passing into loose and rather 

 indistinct bars on sides ; remaining under parts white ; back and upper parts in 

 general light brownish gray, tinging also hind-neck and crown ; feathers of back 

 and scapulars with blackish centers, and irregular spotting of ashy white; the 

 larger feathers, especially tertials, with incomplete black bars ; primaries dusky ; 

 the secondaries with narrow edging of white ; upper tail-coverts white, the ter- 

 minal portion of feathers dusky-barred ; tail white or ashy gray, centrally, barred 

 with dusky; bill and feet as in preceding species. Winter plumage: Above light 

 brownish gray, with some darker shaft-lines, and considerable white spotting on 

 edges of feathers ; markings of neck and under parts much paler, grayish brown, 

 ])artially obscured or blended. Length about 10.50 (266.7) ; average of five 

 Columbus specimens: wing. 6.11 (155.2); tail, 2M (59.9): bill. 1.46 (.S7.1); 

 tarsus, 1.98 (50.3). 



Recognition Marks. — Killdeer size ; like preceding species but smaller. 



Eggs, 3-4, "bufify (variable as to shade), distinctly (sometimes broadly) 

 spotted or blotched with dark madder or Vandyke brown and purplish gray." 

 .Average size, 1.69x1.15 (42.9x29.2) (Ridgw.). 



Range. — .America in general, breeding in the cold temperate and subarctic 

 districts, and migrating south in winter to southern South America. Less com- 

 mon in western than in eastern North America. 



This smaller representative of the genus Totanus is even more generally dis- 

 tributed, if possible, than its larger brother, T. melaiioleitcits. During the spring 

 migrations it spreads over the state and rests wherever there is flooded land. 

 Although not solitary by preference, the birds are rather independent, and T have 

 seen single individuals, or twos and threes, quite as often as larger flocks. These 



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