BIRDS OF NKW YORK 325 



Totanus flavipes (Gmelin) 

 Lesser Yellow-legs 



Plate 36 



S c o 1 o p a X f 1 a V i p r s Gmelin. Svst. Nat. i 788. Ed. i. 2 : 659 

 Totanus flavipes DeKay. Zool. N. V. 1844. pt 2, p. 248, fig. 212 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 255 



fla'vipes, Lat., yellow foot 



Description. Essentially like the Greater yellow-legs in shape and 

 color, but decidedly smaller, the tarsus proportionately longer, and the 

 upper mandil)le grooved for more than half its length rather than less as 

 in melanoleucus. 



Length 9.5-1 1.5 inches; extent 19-2 1.5; wing 6.1-6.7; tarsus 2-2.15; 

 middle toe and claw 1.25 ; tibia bare 1.25 ; bill i. 3-1. 55 ; weight 3.5-5 ounces. 



Distribution and migration. This nearctic species breeds from Minne- 

 sota to the arctic regions, and migrates southward, mostly in eastern 

 America, to the gulf coast and Patagonia. DeKay, 1844, states that many 

 remain to breed in New York, but this was probabh' a mistake which arose 

 from the fact that the Yellow -legs is a late migrant in spring and begins to 

 return from its breeding grounds early in Jul\'. I have seen only one record of 

 its nesting in New York State which seems authentic, and this, of course, may 

 be a case of wing tipped birds, as spring shooting was practised at that 

 time. This was in 1891 when a pair reared their young near Phelps, N. Y. 

 [see Bowdish, Auk, 8 : 394]. 



The Yellow-legs is much less common in the spring than in the fall 

 migrations. The few Long Island records range between May 6th and 26th. 

 My only records for western New York lie between April 20th and May 30th. 

 During the fall it is one of our commonest shore birds, appearing on Long 

 Island from the 7th to the 23d of July, and departing for the south from 

 September 13th to October 5th. Western New York dates range between 

 July 12th and October 12th. It is usually commonest during August and 

 early September. 



Haunts and habits. The Yellow shanks, or Lesser yellow-legs, frequents 

 the bars, mud fiats and marshes which are exposed by the ebbing tide, 



