LESSER YELLOW-LEGS 341 



not easily approached by a moving object, it is often surprisingly tame. 

 If the observer is sitting down and motionless, even in plain sight, 

 the birds will often fly back and forth over him or even alight on 

 the ground near him. 



I have often seen yellow-legs bathing, but Aretas A. Saunders 

 (1926) describes it better than I can, as follows: 



To do this a bird would go to the deeper, clearer water forming the mid- 

 channel of the pond, the same spot where the black ducks bathed earlier in the 

 morniug. There it would sit down in the water, remaining still for a time. 

 Then it would splash water over its back and wings, duck its head, and sit 

 still again. When sitting thus in the water its tail was usually half spread, and 

 resting on or just under the water surface. When the bath was over the bird 

 would stand up, stretch its wings and then preen, taking care to go over care- 

 fully all the feathers of the back, wing, and breast and scratching with its 

 toes those portions it could not reach with the bill. 



He observed them fighting also and says: 



Why they should fight at this season of the year, when the mating season 

 was over and the food supply seemed abundant enough for all comers, is not 

 easily explained. Yet it was a common thing to see two birds stand facing 

 each other with heads and necks up, and bills tilted at an angle a little 

 above the horizontal. After eyeing each other a short time, one would dart 

 at the other, apparently trying to get its bill above its opponent's and strike 

 at the latter's eyes. The second bird would dodge back and then return the 

 attempted blow. They never actually struck each other, and after several 

 such tiffs one bird would crouch down in front of the other, the yellowlegs' 

 way of surrendering, and the other bird would stalk off and pick a fight with 

 some other that had been peacefully feeding. Sometimes the fight varied from 

 this form and the birds lowered their heads at the beginning like roosters 

 and then fluttered up into the air as they went at each other. 



The well-known bobbing habit is well described in some notes 

 sent to me by Francis H. Allen, as follows : 



Watched one on a slough for about an hour. Method of bobbing was to 

 raise the head by stretching the neck and at the same time lower the tail, the 

 whole body being held rigid, then lower the head with the bill pointing some- 

 what downward and raise the tail to normal. The body seems to turn on a 

 pivot, but the lengthening of the neck is an independent movement. 



Voice. — John T. Nichols has sent me some very elaborate notes on 

 the varied calls of the yellow-legs, from which I quote as follows : 



When on the ground in flocks the lesser yellow-legs is usually silent. The 

 same is true frequently of single birds coming in. In the air it is more or less 1 

 noisy and has two common, distinct notes — ivheu and kip or keup, which seem 

 to be used rather indiscriminately on various occasions and which vary into one 

 another. Wandering singles and small companies seem to use the when more, 

 often double. The combination icheu hip is frequent. From large companies, 

 especially in uncertainty, one may hear a chorus of kips. 



(1) The yodle probably corresponds in significance with that of the greater 

 yellow-legs — location. It is certainly its homolog and scarcely, if at all, dis- 

 tinguishable from it. When a flock of a half dozen lesser yellow-legs came to 

 54267—27 23 



