YELLOW-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 137 



from an example obtained in autumn in the province of New York, and 

 then in "the rich Museum of American Birds preserved by Mrs. Anna 

 Blackburn of Oxford, near Warrington," and which were a sent over to 

 that lady by her brother the late Mr. Ashton Blackburn." This species 

 breeds in the Arctic regions of the American continent, from Alaska to 

 Greenland. It passes through the Northern States on migration, some 

 choosing the " fly-line " that crosses the Bermudas on their way to the 

 West Indies, whilst others migrate through the Southern States; Mexico, 

 California, and Central America. On the South- American continent it 

 probably winters south of the line, as Durnford found it common in 

 Patagonia. It is said occasionally to breed as far south as Lake Michigan. 



The Yellow-legged Sandpiper has two near allies one much smaller 

 and one much larger than itself, but neither of them differing from it in 

 general appearance. Its Old- World representative, the Wood- Sandpiper 

 (Tot anus glareold) , is a smaller bird with brown legs; but on the American 

 continent a second species, having nearly the same range, is found, the 

 Greater Yellowshank (T. melanoleucus), a larger bird, with a bill slightly 

 recurved like that of the Greenshank. 



In its habits the Yellowshank does not differ much from its allies. I 

 met with it last autumn at the mouth of the Potomac, in a large flock of 

 smaller Sandpipers which frequented a creek in the forest to feed on the 

 mud when the tide went out. This flock contained many hundred birds, 

 of several species, which fed indiscriminately together, but when alarmed 

 separated into species, or at least into genera. The first birds to take 

 alarm were the Yellow-legged Sandpipers. There were about a dozen of 

 them, long-legged fellows, Totani towering above the short-legged Tringa, 

 even above the Killdeer Plovers. The largest birds, they were the shyest and 

 the first to fly off; but wherever they flew to, the rest followed as soon as 

 they were sufficiently alarmed. I also met with a solitary Yellowshank on 

 the banks of a little stream near my friend Mr. Brooks's farm in Canada, 

 between Toronto and Niagara. 



MacFarlane and others describe the nest as a mere depression in the 



that to an extent to cause the birds to be genetically separated. There can be no question 

 of mimicry in a case of this kind. Sauuders is equally wrong (Yarr. Brit. B. 4th ed. iii. 

 p. 468) in supposing that the Solitary Sandpiper is the Nearctic representative of the Wood- 

 Sandpiper. It is the Nearctic representative of the Green Sandpiper. The Nearctic 

 representative of the Wood-Sandpiper is the Yellow-legged Sandpiper. Rodd's descrip- 

 tion of the latter bird (loc. cit.) undoubtedly refers to that species, but the dimensions of 

 the bill must be wrong, 1-fa ought no doubt to read l-^j-. Yarrell also (loc. cit.) must be 

 in error in saying that the axillaries were pure white : even in winter plumage, which he 

 is evidently describing, these feathers are always slightly marked with brown. The ' Ibis ' 

 List Committee, if not wrong, are strangely capricious in excluding this bird from the 

 British List, after including the Killdeer Plover. 



