GREATER YELLOW-LEGS 331 



gradually restricted. Hudsonian curlew, and black-bellied and 

 golden plover and greater j^ellow-legs were all fine game birds. I 

 could see no reason for cutting out the curlew, as it is well able to 

 take care of itself; golden plover were sadly depleted in numbers and 

 black-bellied plover and both yellow-legs were decreasing; perhaps it 

 was wise to eliminate them all. 



Those were glorious days that we used to spend on the marshes 

 of Cape Cod. On the inner, or bay, side of Monomoy are extensive 

 marshes, meadows, sand flats, and mud flats, 9 miles in length and 

 nearly a mile wide in places at low tide. These were great feeding 

 resorts for hosts of shore birds ; and in the good old days, when there 

 were shore birds to shoot and when we were allowed to shoot them, 

 blinds were scattered all along the marshes and flats. On a dry sand 

 spit or beach a hole was dug in the sand and seaweed was piled up 

 around it high enough to conceal a sitting gunner ; on a wet marsh a 

 substantial blind was built of brush, with a seat in it for two men; in 

 some places in the meadows, where the grass grew high, a box or a 

 board to sit on was all the gunner needed. Wooden or tin decoys 

 painted to imitate yellow-legs or plover were set up in the sand or 

 mud, all facing the wind and within easy range. Here in a comfort- 

 able blind the hunter could lounge at ease, bask in the genial sun of 

 early autumn, smoke his pipe and meditate, or watch the many inter- 

 esting things about him, the rich autumn colors of the marsh vegeta- 

 tion, the eveivchanging picture of sky and sea, the black terns and the 

 swallows winnowing the meadows, the gulls and the terns over the sea 

 and the flocks of small waders running over the mud flats. Suddenly 

 he is awakened from his reveries by the well-known note of the 

 winter yellow-legs and discerns a mere speck in the distant sky; he 

 whistles an imitation of its note ; the bird answers him and, looking 

 for companionship, circles nearer; by judicious calling the bird is 

 attracted within sight of the decoys and, after several cautious cir- 

 clings, it sets its wings and scales down to the decoys, where it meets 

 its fate. Perhaps a whole flock may slip in unexpectedly, wheel 

 over the decoys and hurry away, giving the gunner only a hurried 

 chance for a quick shot. Perhaps a curlew may fly over or a flock 

 of beetle-heads fly swiftly by; the gunner must be ready for all 

 such chances. There is an ever-changing panorama of bird life on 

 the marshes, full of surprises and delights for the nature lover. 



Winter. — The greater yellow-legs has a wide winter range, from 

 the southern United States, where it is comparatively rare, to south- 

 ern South America, where most of the birds seem to go. W. H. 

 Hudson (1920) says: 



The greater yellow-legs is best known as an Arctic-American species, descend- 

 ing south during migration, and arriving in La Plata at the end of September 



