REDSHANK 321 



Egg dates. — In Iceland the eggs are laid from the end of May to 

 early in June, May 28-June 8 (six dates), June 9-18 (five dates). 

 In the British Isles the first eggs are laid at the end of March and 

 through April and May, but late records in May, even in the north, 

 are probably due to second layings : March 28 to April 16 (10 dates) ; 

 April 17 to 25 (16 dates) ; April 26 to May 5 (10 dates). In the 

 Shetlands Saxby records the first eggs on May 16. In Holland I have 

 seen some 60 nests between May 11 and 31, but many were undoubt- 

 edly second layings. In Salonika eggs have been found as early as 

 March 5. 



TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS (Gmelin) 

 GREATER YELLOW-LEGS 



HABITS 



The names, telltale and tattler, have long been applied to both of 

 the yellow-legs, and deservedly so, for their noisy, talkative habits are 

 their best known traits. They are always on the alert and ever 

 vigilant to warn their less observant or more trusting companions 

 by their loud, insistent cries of alarm that some danger is approach- 

 ing. Every sportsman knows this trait and tries to avoid arousing 

 this alarm when other, more desirable, game is likely to be frightened 

 away. And many a yellow-legs has been shot by an angry gunner 

 as a reward for his exasperating loquacity. 



The two yellow-legs are still left on our list of game birds, because 

 their numbers do not seem to decrease much in spite of the large 

 numbers that are killed every year by sportsmen. William Brewster 

 (1925) says that he has "failed to note any decided lessening of their 

 numbers in New England during the past 30 or 40 years." This 

 stability in numbers is probably more apparent than real. The 

 birds have been driven from many of their former haunts by in- 

 creased building of summer colonies, improvements in seashore re- 

 sorts, draining and filling of marshes, and other changes; so that 

 fewer birds can make the restricted localities seem as well populated 

 as ever. 



Spring. — The spring migration of the greater yellow-legs is well 

 marked on both coasts and in the interior, a generally northward 

 trend. It begins in March, reaches the northern States in April and 

 extends through May or even into June, Although most of the birds 

 are on their breeding grounds in May. The bulk of the flight passes 

 through Massachusetts in May and through California in April. It 

 seems to avoid the prairie regions of southern Canada; William 

 Kowan tells me that he and C. G. Harrold regard it as "probably the 

 scarcest of the regular waders. In years of steady collecting, during 

 the height of the migration, spring and fall, he (Harrold) has seen 



