iss BRITISH BIRDS WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Central South America. Little is known of its breeding habits, or eggs, and it 

 is most likely, therefore, an abnormal breeder like its Old World representative. 



Dr. Coues describes it as a quiet, shy inhabitant of wet woods, meadows, and 

 secluded pools, rather than of the marshes, resembling, therefore, the Green 

 Sandpiper in this respect also. 



Family-SCOL OP A C/Z^E. 



YELLOWSHANK. 



Totanus flavipes, GMEL. 



A NOTHER American vagrant, of which a specimen has been obtained in 

 Jr\. Notts, and another in Cornwall. Its breeding grounds are from Lake 

 Superior northwards, and from Alaska, in the west, to Greenland (probably). It 

 passes on migration through the States and West Indies, to winter in South 

 America down to Patagonia. 



It much resembles a small Redshank, both in summer and autumn dress, but 

 has a longer tarsus (seldom less than two inches) and a slenderer bill. Its legs 

 are of a bright yellow, and its axillaries are, in summer dress, barred with dusky 

 grey-brown, and in autumn it does not entirely lose these bars, as the Redshank does, 

 but retains at least a subterminal bar, and usually another also, on each feather. 



Its nest is placed on the ground near a woodland marsh, and is lined with a 

 few dead leaves. The eggs, four in number, are of a clay-buff or cream colour, 

 generally heavily blotched, but sometimes spotted only, with dark brown or black. 

 It feeds on small insects, Crustacea, etc. 



