THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 211 



The food of the bird is composed of larvae and insects 

 such as are generally found in watery places, roots of 

 bushes and piles of old timber. 



Yellow-bird. See Goldfinch. 



Yellow-bird, Summer. See Yellow Warbler. 



Yellow-hammer. See Flicker. 



Yellow-legs, Greater. Length, fifteen inches ;extent, 

 twenty inches; bill, two and one -fifth inches. Upper sur- 

 face, black, mottled with white, assuming a definite 

 streaked appearance on the head and neck and more spot- 

 ted on the back and shoulders; rump, white, barred with 

 black; tail, barred black and white; long wing feathers, 

 black; under surface, white, streaked with black on the 

 neck and throat, passing into arrow-shaped marks on the 

 breast and transverse bars under the wings and tail; 

 middle of belly, white; legs and feet, yellow. In winter 

 much grayer above and the markings below indistinct. 



The nest is a mere depression in the ground, lined with 

 a little grass. The eggs are four in number, grayish 

 white, with brown and lilac spots more numerous near 

 the large end, and one and seven- tenths by one and three- 

 tenths of an inch in size. 



The birds breed in the northern part of North America 

 and spend the winter in the south Atlantic states south- 

 ward as far as South America. They are common in 

 New Jersey during migrations, occurring from April 20 

 to May 16 and again from July 15 to October 1. 



Their food consists of small shellfish, insects and 

 worms. 



Yellow-legs, Summer. The plumage of this bird re- 

 sembes that of the Greater Yellowlegs in almost every 

 particular, but it is a considerably smaller bird, being 

 eleven inches in length. Its eggs are one and one-half 



