220 THE SMALL YELLOWSHANKS. 



blotches, confluent about the larger end, while others have 

 smaller clean-edged spots all over the surface. The mark- 

 ings are rich umber-brown, often tending to chocolate, 

 sometimes almost blackish. The paler shell-markings are 

 usually numerous and noticeable." 



On the following morning, I saw a flock of these Lesser 

 Yellowshanks scouring the same flooded fields above re- 

 ferred to. After describing several of their elegant circles, 

 each keeping his place in the finely-ordered ranks, they 

 lighted in the shallow water near a thicket. I crept around 

 into the thicket, and crawling almost on hands and knees 

 behind a brush-fence, when I supposed myself near enough 

 for a good shot, and was peering cautiously around in order 

 to take aim from behind my screen, before I could get my 

 eye on one of the number I heard the ominous whistle 

 the signal of danger and away the little creatures were 

 careering beyond shot-range. I rose and watched the flock 

 till they were Out of sight, studying that whistle which had 

 been given by the sentinel so well on the alert, and which 

 they all seemed so to comprehend in an instant. To this 

 moment I can feel in my eye-balls the quick and simultane- 

 ous beat of their wings. 



Once, at Barnegat Inlet (N. J.), late in August, as I stood 

 on the piazza of the club-house with some half-dozen others, 

 a flock of these birds appeared. Some one whistled in 

 imitation of their note, and at once they turned and flew 

 directly towards us. By the time they came within shot- 

 range, some one had brought out a gun, and giving them 

 two charges, dropped quite a number of them. They are 

 gentle, winsome little creatures, and well deserve to be held 

 in favor by all lovers of nature. They are not so common 

 here as the larger species. 



