LESSEE YELLOW-LEGS 339 



All the young lmd left the nest and had taken refuge in the shade of a log 

 to escape the burning rays of the sun. No eggshells were found in the 

 nest or near by. As we retired from the immediate locality the female flew 

 down to the ground and softly " kipped " as if to rally the scattered young. 

 On the succeeding day a nest was found which at 10 a. m. contained one young 

 and two eggs. At 12.30 p. m. all the birds had hatched and had left the nest, 

 being found quite a distance away. One bird was walking, readily indicating 

 that the migration to the water must start within a few hours of the time that 

 the young are out of the eggs. 



After June 6 all the same excitement that characterized the action of the 

 adult birds at the nesting site was transplanted to the meadow lands. One 

 uninitiated in the ways of the species might easily suppose that he was now 

 upon the breeding grounds, for the young keep well concealed and are difficult 

 to discover. Perhaps the exhibition of the adults at this time and the secretive 

 habits of the birds during the early days of the mating have tended to keep 

 the nesting habits of the lesser yellowlegs so long a mystery. 



Plumages. — In natal down the yoimg yellow-legs is " pinkish buff ! ' 

 on the back, shading off to "cartridge buff" on the crown, to paler 

 buff on the forehead and sides of the head and to pure white on the 

 under parts; there is an indistinct frontal black stripe; the crown 

 is heavily mottled with browmish black; a black stripe extends from 

 the bill through the eye to the nape ; and there are three broad bands 

 on the center and sides of the back and large patches on the rump 

 and thighs of brownish black. 



Young birds develop rapidly, the juvenal plumage coming in first 

 on the sides of the breast, scapulars, and wings. A young bird, taken 

 July 10, is nearly fully grown; the crown and neck fully feathered, 

 the breast nearly so, and the wings and tail nearly grown. In this 

 fresh juvenal plumage the feathers of the crown are tipped with 

 whitish, and those of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts are edged, 

 tipped, or notched with pale buff to white- 



Subsequent molts and plumages are similar to and very much like 

 those of the greater yellow T -legs. I have seen a number of birds in 

 what I call the first nuptial plumage migrating northward; they 

 may breed in this plumage. I have seen several adults molting 

 their primaries in January and February. 



Food. — The favorite feeding grounds of the yellow r -legs are on 

 flat marshes near the coast, where the grass is short and where the 

 high course of tides or heavy rains leave the marshes partially 

 covered, or dotted, with shallow pools or splashes; away from the 

 coast it is equally at home in wet, short-grass marshes, mud flats, 

 shallow ponds and even wet places in cultivated fields. In such 

 places it walks about in an active manner, usually in shallow w r ater, 

 but often up to the full length of its long legs, gleaning most of its 

 food from the surface of the water or mud and seldom probing for 

 it. During one season on Monomoy large numbers of yellow-legs 

 frequented the drier parts of the meadows where the long grass had 



