324 BULLETIN" 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of the bird. However, I went to the old nest and when within 3 feet to my 

 astonishment saw a yellow-shank lying fiat on the nest. I could hardly believe 

 my eyes. I watched her for some time as she sat there perfectly motionless ; 

 on putting her up, she began to scold loudly, sometimes flying close round 

 my head and then she would perch on a dead bush near, bobbing her head, utter- 

 ing tee erk, tee erk, tee erk all the time. Four beautiful eggs lay in the slight 

 depression. I had been there fully 15 minutes when away in the far distance I 

 heard another yellow-shank which quickly approached and was evidently the 

 mate, for they both continued their abuse until I was out of sight. It very 

 often happens that the male bird is not within miles of the incubating female, 

 and under these conditions finding a nest is a mere fluke. There is one rule 

 which holds good in all the nests I have found, and this is that a yellowlegs 

 never nests on ground which is too soft to scratch in. There must be soil or 

 dry, hard peat. I once found a nest on a boulder which had a thin covering of 

 peat and reindeer moss on it, whilst the surrounding ground was wet and 

 mossy, so being unsuitable for making a scratch. The nest is nearly always 

 placed quite close to a flashet or pond of water; I have only twice seen a nest 

 at a distance of 20 yards from any water hole. 



William Brewster (1883) found the greater yellow-legs abundant 

 on Anticosti Island in July and, although he found no eggs or young, 

 he obtained " the strongest circumstantial evidence " that the birds 

 were breeding there. The fact that this island has been for many 

 years a protected sanctuary may have had some effect in keeping up 

 the supply of these birds. 



Fifty years or more ago Dr. E. W. Nelson (1877a) found several 

 pairs of greater yellow-legs about the Calumet Marshes, which from 

 their actions he felt sure were breeding there. He records a nest and 

 four eggs found near Evanston, Illinois, in June, 1876 ; " the nest was 

 situated in a slight depression at the base of a small hillock near the 

 border of a prairie slough, and was composed of grass stems and 

 blades." 



Ernest S. Norman (1915) while driving over a soft and spongy 

 spot in a swamp, in Manitoba, in which his team nearly became 

 mired, was surprised to see a greater yellow-legs fly up from its nest 

 within 1 foot of the front wheel of the wagon. The nest, which con- 

 tained four heavily incubated eggs on June 24, is thus described : 



The nest was just a depression in the moss, with a few bits of ivy grass as a 

 lining. It had no shelter whatever, as a fire had swept over the place about a 

 month previous to the finding of the nest so that there was not even grass 

 growing anywhere near the nest. 



Eggs. — The four eggs, usually comprising the set, of the greater 

 yellow-legs are ovate pyriform in shape and have a slight gloss. 

 They are rather handsomely marked and are practically indistin- 

 guishable from eggs of the European greenshank. The ordinary 

 ground colors are pale buff, " light buff " to " cartridge buff." They 

 are irregularly spotted and blotched, chiefly about the larger end, 

 with dark browns, "bay," "liver brown," and "chestnut brown," 



