Bird- Life in Labrador. 61 



them : Length from end of bill to tail, 16 inches ; end of 

 bill to toes, 18.50; extent, 28 ; wing, 8.75 ; tail, 3.25 ; bill, 

 3.25; unfeathered tibia, 1.13; tarsus, 2.50; hind toe and 

 claw, .50; middle toe and claw, 1.65. It was a male bird and 

 had the gizzard full of gravel and nearly digested matter. 

 The people tell me that it is occasionally seen in the Fall, but 

 that it is rare. Audubon speaks of it as " rare along the At- 

 lantic district in Spring and Autumn. Breeds in the barren 

 grounds of the Arctic seas in great numbers." It seems to be 

 confined to the more middle interior parts of the Arctic re- 

 gions, and the majority of writers whose works I have seen 

 speak of it, as I have generally found it, as rare along the 

 Eastern Atlantic and Gulf coast generally. 



GREATER YELLOW-LEGS STONE SNIPE 



Totanus* mehmokucus. (GM.) VIEILJ,. 



THE people of the coast here have a curious name for this 

 " yellow-legs," it being everywhere known as the nan-sary+ 

 The derivation of the word I was unable to learn. It is by 

 no means a rare bird, though from what I saw of it it seemed 

 to perfer localities up the river and on the shores bordering 

 the mainland rather than the islands, perhaps because it was 

 less likely to be molested there. I found it all along the coast 

 in Spring and Fall and late into the breeding season. It un- 

 doubtedly breeds. They occur singly or in small numbers in 

 the most unexpected situations. In rounding small headlands 

 in our boat we often came across a single solitary individual 

 perched upon some rock within a few feet of the water's edge ; 

 the moment it was perceived it would fly away with a loud, 

 shrill cry that would wake the neighborhood and send to 

 wing every bird within sound of its call. We occasionally found 

 it on the outside marshes associated with other smaller sand- 

 pipers and plovers ; but its habits here, as elsewhere, lead it to 

 be cordially detested by the hunters, who lose many a good shot 

 through it. 



