BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



303 



YELLOW-LEGS (Totcmus flavipes). 



Common or local names: Summer Yellow-leg; Summer; Little Yellow-ley 



Small Cucu. 





Length. — 10 to 11 inches; bill 1.40. 



Adult. — Closely resembles the Greater Yellow-legs, but is about one-third 

 smaller. 



Notes. — A call like that of the Greater Yellow-legs, but usually composed 

 of fewer syllables, sometimes only one, often only two. 



Season. — A rare spring but common fall migrant locally and irregularly 

 for brief periods; early May to June and early July to October. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, 

 northern Mackenzie, central Keewatin and southern Ungava to valley 

 of Upper Yukon, southern Saskatchewan and northern Quebec; winters 

 in Argentina, Chile. Patagonia, and casually in Mexico, Florida and 

 Bahamas; in migration occurs mainly east of Rocky Mountains (rare 

 in spring on Atlantic coast) and in Pribilof Islands, Greenland and 

 Bermuda; accidental in Great Britain. 



History. 

 The Lesser Yellow-legs formerly was one of the most 

 numerous of all the shore birds of North America, and still 

 holds its numbers better than many other species. Mr. Wil- 

 liam P. Wharton states that his imcle killed a bushel basket 

 full of this species one day at Ipswich more than thirty years 

 ago. Its decrease is exhibited in the following abridged notes: 



