218 THE LARGE YELLOW SHANKS. 



Indies, and breeding from Nova Scotia northward, it is 

 merely a passenger through these middle districts, scarcely 

 seen after the first of May, but returning already in August 

 or even in July. Stray birds sometimes linger so late in 

 Massachusetts as to receive the name, Winter Yellow-legs; 

 and I have known them to be shot on the south shore of Lake 

 Ontario as late as November 19th, when the Old Squaw Ducks 

 had already arrived ; they are not uncommon on the sea-coast, 

 but being rather fresh-water birds, are more abundant in 

 the interior. When in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, a few weeks 

 since, I saw in the collection of Mr. Doan, a taxidermist of 

 that place, the young of this species in the down, along with 

 the parent, both having been shot and mounted by that gen- 

 tleman. He procured them at Chebogue Point, near the 

 city. They probably breed more or less in the marshes 

 about Chebogue and Tusket River, in the southwest end of 

 the Province. Strange to say, the nest of this species has 

 recently been reported from New Jersey. 



Audubon says: "When in Labrador I found these birds 

 breeding, two or three pairs together, in the delightful 

 quiet valleys bounded by rugged hills of considerable 

 height, and watered by limpid brooks. These valleys 

 exhibit, in June and July, the richest verdure; luxuriant 

 grasses of various species growing here and there in sep- 

 arate beds, many yards in extent, while the intervening 

 spaces, which are comparatively bare, are of that boggy 

 nature so congenial to the habits of these species. In one 

 of these pleasing retreats my son found a pair of Telltales 

 in the month of June, both of which were procured. The 

 female was found to contain a full-formed egg, and some 

 more of the size of peas. The eggs are four, pyriform, 2.25 

 long and 1.60 in their greatest breadth, pale greenish-yellow, 

 marked with blotches of umber and pale purplish-gray." 



