BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 133 
associated with other flocks of its family, and so far as I have 
been able to learn, has only been obtained in fall migrations. 
I know nothing of its habits to distinguish it from the other 
species of its genus. The description of the species is as 
follows: 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 
Smaller than the preceding; bill longer than the head; both 
mandibles grooved, slightly recurved; wings long; legs mod- 
erate; membranes uniting the outer and middle toe large, 
Upper parts brownish-black, with dots and transverse bars of 
pale reddish on the back; rump brownish-black; upper tail 
coverts white; wing coverts and shorter quills dark cinereous; 
primaries brownish black; under parts yellowish-red, with 
transverse bars of brownish-black on the breast and sides, and 
under tail coverts,:and frequently with the feathers on the 
abdomen widely tipped with white; tail black with the base 
white and narrowly tipped with white; under wing coverts and 
axillary feathers black; shafts of primaries white; bill pale 
yellowish at base, tip brownish-black; legs bluish-brown; iris 
brown 
Length, 15; wing, 8; tail 3; bill, 2.75 to 3.50; tarsus, 2.50. 
Habitat, eastern, northern and middle America. 
TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS (GMELIN). (254.) 
GREATER YELLOW-LEGS. 
This bird is a typical wader, being almost constantly in the 
puddles, pools and ditches in spring, in quest of its food, found 
mostly in those places. 
They rarely resort to strands and sandy beaches except in 
passing from one of the former localities to another. Itis gen- 
erally about the 10th of April, when they appear about our 
ponds and muddy lakes in considerable numbers, for a time, 
and then disappear until the latter part of August when they 
come back in force. In their fall migration, they not only 
remain longer but resort in large flocks to the fields, where 
wheat and corn have been grown, in which they find an abun- 
dance of larvee, worms, and various species of insects in large 
numbers. They are the terror of the sportsman, for as soon 
as they discover anything suggestive of a man or a gun, they 
set up a loud, shrill noise that awakens every game bird in 
the region for a quarter of amile around in all directions. The 
“quack” by the ducks as they take to wing before having seen 
any danger themselves, is the unwelcome farewell tu the next 
hour’s sport. It takes no ordinary measure of strategy to bag 
them after they have once been flushed. 
