832 



S YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^. 



Tail like back, with numerous white bars, generally broken on the middle feathers. Primaries 

 blackish, with black shafts, mostly with white tips; secondaries and their coverts the same, 

 but their edges marbled, spotted, or broken-barred with white. The seasonal changes of 

 plumage are inconsiderable, consisting chietiy in the tone of the upper parts — more blackish 

 and wltite in summer, more gray and ashy in winter and in the young ; and in the emphasis of 

 dark markings of under parts. Very young birds have the white speckling somewhat buffy. 

 Nortli America at large ; in the U. S. chietiy as a migrant, and in winter in the Gulf States 

 and southern California, though at that season it also extends through Central and much of 

 South America ; breeds from Nebraska and middle portions of the Mississippi Valley N. to 

 high latitudes ; abundant ; like the last and the next species, a noisy, restless denizen of 

 marshes, bays, and estuaries. Eggs 3-4, 1.70 X 1-25, grayish or deep buflf, irregularly 

 spotted with rich dark brown. Rarely taken. 



T. na'vipes. (Lat. fladpes, yellow-fot»t. Fig. 58J .) Lesser Tell-tale. Lesser Yel- 

 low-shanks. Yellow-legs. Common Yellow-legs. Summer Yellow-legs. 

 Yellow-legged Plover. Little Kill-cu or Cucu- A miniature of the last; colors 



/y^^l^^ 



Fig ">-~1 —Greater Ytllow-shauks and Little Yellon-sUauks. (From "North American Shore 

 Birdb,"' bj D. G. Elliot.) 



the same; legs comparatively longer; bill grooved rather farther (more than half its length), 

 perfectly straight. Length under 12.00, usually 10.00-11.00; extent 19.00-21.00; wing under 

 7.00, averaging about 6.40; tail 2. .50; bill always under 2.00, about 1.50; tarsus 2.00; mid- 

 dle toe and claw, and bare tibia, each, 1 .2.5. The legs are thus relatively longer than those of 

 the foregoing, probably at a maximum in its genus and family, and only exceeded proportion- 

 ally by those of the Stilt (Himantopus) . In comparison with the dimensions of T. melanoleucus 

 the difference in all dimensions is decided; there is a break between tbe largest ^on^es and 

 smallest melanoleucus; both species hold their characters steadily, with only moderate variabil- 

 ity, and no one has seen an equivocal specimen of either one. Each has a profusion of popular 

 names, mostly shared in common but with some qualifying term, as the two species are readily 

 discriminated by gunners. When "Yellow-legs" is said without qualification, the present 

 species is generally meant. North America at large, abundant in eastern portions, less com- 

 mon in western, in same places as last. Nesting reported in some of Northern States, but breeds 



