408 GAME BIEDS OF CALIFOENIA 



Lesser Yellow-legs 



Totanus fiavipes (Gmelin) 



Other names — Yellow-legs; Sunimei- Yellow-legs; Little Yellow-legs; Yellow- 

 shanks Tattler; Gambetta fiavipes. 



Description — Adults, both sexes, m spring and summer: Top and sides of 

 head and whole neck streaked with black and white, the black in excess on top 

 of head; stripe from upper mandible to above eye whitish; eyelids white; chin 

 and throat white, or but narrowly flecked with black; bill black, lower mandible 

 slightly brownish at base; iris dark brown; back and scapulars mixed sooty 

 and ashy brown, with extensive ashy white feather spottings and tippings, 

 giving a mottled appearance; rump feathers dull dark brown, each crossed 

 by a narrow blackish band near the end and tipped with white; upper tail 

 coverts white, mostly barred with dark brown; tail feathers white or ashy 

 white, barred with brownish black; outer surface of closed wing like back; 

 primaries brownish black; shaft of outer primary nearly white; margin and 

 lining of wing, and axillars, white, with irregular brown bars on the feathers; 

 under surface of flight feathers, dusky, unmarked; ground color of whole 

 lower surface white; foreneck and breast streaked with dark brown or black- 

 ish; lower breast, sides, flanks, and under tail coverts with sparse irregular 

 bars of brown or brownish black; legs and feet yellow, nails black. Adults, 

 both sexes, in fall and winter: Top and sides of head, and whole neck, dully 

 streaked with ashy brown and white; stripe from bill to above eye, and eye- 

 lids, white; chin white; whole back ashy brown, with dark shafts and whitish 

 feather tippings; rump, upper tail coverts and tail as in summer; outer sur- 

 face of closed wing, ashy brown, the feathers with dark shafts and white 

 marginal spots; under surface white, the throat and upper chest pale ashy, 

 faintly streaked with dull brown; a few indistinct bars of ashy brown on 

 flank feathers and outer under tail coverts (modified from various authors; 

 specimens in winter plumage not seen). Males: Total length 10.50 inches (266 

 mm.) (one specimen); folded wing 5.80-6.18 (147-157); bill along culmen 1.34- 

 1.49 (34.0-37.8); tarsus 1.94-2.12 (49.3-53.8) (six specimens). Females: Total 

 length 10.75 (273) (one specimen); folded wing 5.95-6.50 (151-165); bill along 

 culmen 1.30-1.51 (33.0-38.3); tarsus 2.00-2.13 (50.8-54.0) (five specimens); 

 all from Alaska. Juvenile plumage: Similar to that of adults in summer, but 

 upper surface lighter in tone, the feathers with buff marginal spots; streaking 

 on the throat and upper breast, duller, and on a pale drab ground; rest of 

 lower surface pure white. Natal plumage: "Upper parts and thighs, seal- 

 brown; many of the feathers tipped with cream-buff; forehead, sides of head 

 and streaks on rump, buffy white; lines on forehead, and from bill through 

 eye to nape, seal -brown; throat and abdomen white; rest of lower parts, buffy 

 white" (Sanford, Bishop and Van Dyke, 1903, pp. 412-413). 



Marks for field identification — Moderate size, slenderness of body especially 

 noticeable in flight, long slender bill, mottled back (in summer plumage), 

 white upper tail coverts, and extremely long and slender yellow legs. Dis- 

 tinguished from Greater Yellow-legs under favorable circumstances on the 

 basis of size, being about one-half the biilk of that species. In the hand, 

 dimensions are diagnostic; also the Lesser lacks the fine pattern of markings 

 on inner surface of flight feathers, aiul tlic markings on lower surface of body 

 are less extensive. 



Voice — Eesembles that of the Greater Yellow-legs, but clearer and not so 



