GREATER YELLOWSHANKS 199 



being much more solitary and sedentary in its ways, 

 feeding for hours in one spot, and in its Snipe-like 

 habit of sitting close when approached and remaining 

 motionless watching the intruder ; also in its lan- 

 guage, its low, soft, tremulous cry when flying being 

 utterly unlike the sharp and clicking sounds emitted 

 by other species. During the hot months, when 

 water begins to fail, they occasionally congregate in 

 flocks, sometimes as many as two or three hundred 

 individuals being seen together; but at all times 

 it is more usual to see them in small parties of half 

 a dozen or singly. 



Two other well-known Arctic-American species of 

 Tringa are annual visitants to Argentina : Baird's 

 Sandpiper, 7". bairdi, and Bonaparte's Sandpiper, 

 r. fusdcollis. 



GREATER YELLOWSHANKS 



Totanus melanoleucus 



Above brownish grey spotted with white ; rump nearly white ; 

 beneath white ; throat and neck with black streaks ; bill black, feet 

 yellow ; length 14, wing 7.5 inches. Female similar. 



THE Greater Yellowshanks is best known as an 

 Arctic-American species, descending south during 

 migration, and arriving in La Plata at the end of 

 September or early in October, singly or in pairs, 

 and sometimes in small flocks. Without ever being 

 abundant the bird is quite common, and one can 



