300 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



GREATER YELLOW-LEGS (Totanus mekmoleucuif). 



Common or local names: Winter Yellow-leg; Winter; Cucu; Large Cucu; Big 

 Yellow-leg; Greater Tell-tale; Tell-tale Godwit; Tattler. 



Length. — 1^2.50 to 1.5 inches; hill '2 to 2.^20. 



Adult in Spring. — Blackish and light gray above, speckled with white; 

 tail white, barred with blackish; basal half of the tail and upper tail 

 coverts mainly white; under parts white, streaked on throat and neck 

 with dusky, and on breast and sides spotted and barred with same; iris 

 brown; bill black or greenish black; legs long and slender, chrome yellow. 



AduU in Winter, and Young. — Similar, but without the blackish above; 

 below streaked only on the neck and upper breast; legs yellow . 



Field Marks. — Long, slender yellow legs; white or whitish tail and upper 

 tail coverts. Easily recognized by its manner of flight, alternately 

 scaling and Happing, curving its dark wings downward. 



Notes. — A soft, flutelike whistle, when, when, when, trheu. u-lie)K irheu, when, 

 irheu (Chapman). A prolonged rolling call t>r a succession of quick 

 calls (C. \V. Townsend). 



Season. — Common migrant, mostly coastwise; early April to mid June 

 and early July to November; a few non-breeding birds occur, or 

 formerly occurred, in summer. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds from Alaska and southern 

 Mackenzie to southern British Columbia, l^ngava, Labrador and Anti- 

 costi Island ; winters from southern California and Georgia, casually in 

 North Carolina, south to Patagonia; occurs in Bermuda in migration. 



