GREATER YELLOW-LEGS 323 



breed and its breeding grounds are fairly accessible. I know from 

 personal experience with it that its nest is very hard to find. I have 

 spent many hours hunting for its nest on the high tundras of central 

 Newfoundland, where it breeds commonly, and secured only one set of 

 eggs. The male bird is very noisy and solicitous, flying out to meet 

 the intruder while he is a long way from the nest, alighting on any 

 available spruce tree, stump, rock, or other eminince, pouring out a 

 steady stream of invective cries and showing the greatest anxiety, but 

 giving not the slightest clue as to the location of the nest. And the 

 female sits so closely on the nest that it is only by the merest chance 

 that she can be flushed. The high tundra around Gafftopsail and 

 Quarry, Newfoundland, is an immense tract of boggy ground, full 

 of small ponds and muddy splashes, interspersed with mossy hum- 

 mocks and outcroppings of rocks. My set was taken there on June 9, 

 1912 ; it was in a mere hollow in the moss on a small hummock in a 

 shallow, muddy pond hole ; the female was flushed, and the four eggs 

 were fresh. 



Mr. Whitaker has sent me the following notes on the nesting habits 

 of the greater yellow-legs in Newfoundland : 



On June 17, 1919, whilst walking over a big tundra with a friend (Geo. H. 

 Stuart, 3rd), a yellow-shank which flew up from the side of a water hole 

 showed considerable excitement, there were a number of small ponds just there 

 dotted with mossy islands; we beat all the ground between these ponds but 

 could find nothing, however, we noticed that each time we approached the edge 

 of the tundra where a stunted growth of scattered dead larch trees were, 

 and where the wintergreen, laurel, and labrndor tea bushes merged into the 

 sphagnum of the tundra, the bird seemed more excited and flew close round 

 our heads shrieking out his harsh notes tee eric, tee erk, tee eric more fiercely. 

 We decided to hide away at some distance and watch, thinking this must be 

 the hen bird and we would wait until she returned to the nest. We retired 

 several hundred yards and hid in some spruces, the bird following part of the 

 way and alighted on the top of a bush growing in the moss and there remained 

 for upwards of an hour, then flew to a pond near, settling on an island, fed for 

 a while, and after preening went to sleep; this seemed absolutely hopeless, so 

 we decided to have another look over the ground. Each of us had a long polej 

 with a handkerchief tied to the end, with these we covered all the ground 

 which appeared suitable most thoroughly without any results. I then remem- 

 bered hunting for green-shanks nests in the north of Scotland ; there the 

 nests were usually placed on a dry ridge, and seeing such a ridge near the 

 edge of the tundra I suggested to my friend that we should go and look it 

 over. We had not proceeded in its direction more than 10 yards when right 

 in front of me and not moi-e than 6 feet away on the top of a dry peat 

 hummock amongst some scrubby tea plant squatted a yellow-shank with a 

 downy young one on her back. I called my friend, who was only a few yards 

 away; he came and we both watched the bird for some time before putting 

 her up. When she did go there were four downy young in a very slight hollow 

 without any trace of nesting material but a few leaves which had probably 

 blown in. Amongst these we found some fragments of eggshell. 



On June 6th of the following year I was out on that tundra again and worked 

 my way towards where we had found the nest, but never saw or heard a sign 



