BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 16-5 



If, as is not improbable, Nuttall, in the passage above quoted, used the 

 term ' uncommon ' in a comparative sense, his statement is not difficult to under- 

 stand, for Eskimo Curlew, Golden Plover, and certain other large Limicoline 

 birds which frequented the Massachusetts seaboard in countless thousands sixty 

 or seventy years ago, have since almost ceased to visit it at all. In comparison 

 with these species the Greater Yellow-legs may have seemed as uncommon to 

 Nuttall as it seems common to the sportsmen of the present time and yet 

 not have changed its own status materially in the interim. As far as my own 

 observations go to show, its numbers have remained about the same during the 

 last quarter of a century. 



68. Totanus flavipes (Gmel.). 

 Yellow-legs. Lesser Yellow-legs. Summer Yellow-leg. 



Transient visitor, formerly common in late summer and early autumn, now rare at all 

 seasons. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 3, 1868, three seen, Cambridge, W. Brewster. 



August 4, 1875, one seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 

 September 15, 1868, one seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



Nuttall's account of the Lesser Yellow-legs contains the following charm- 

 ingly quaint and picturesque passage which evidently relates chiefly, if not 

 wholly, to his personal experience with the bird in the marshes bordering the 

 tidal reaches of Charles River in Cambridge and Brighton : " At the approach of 

 autumn small flocks, here also, accompany the Upland Plover ( Totanus Bar- 

 tramins,) flying high, and whistling, as they proceed inland to feed, but return- 

 ing again towards the marshes of the sea coast to roost. Sometimes, and 

 perhaps more commonly at the approach of stormy weather, they are seen in 

 small restless bands, roving over the salt marshes, and tacking and turning along 

 the meanders of the river, now crossing then returning, a moment alighting, the 

 next on the wing ; they then spread out and reconnoitre, again closing in a loose 

 phalanx, the glittering of their wings and snow white tails, are seen conspicuous 

 as they mount into the higher regions of the air ; and now intent on some more 

 distant excursion, they rise, whistling on their way, high over the village spire, 

 and beyond the reach of danger, pursue their way to some other clime, or to 



