SHORE BIRDS 135 



ner, "with much balancing and vibrating of the body and 

 graceful darting of the head in various directions," while 

 they seek for their food. 



The greater yellow-legs exhibits great anxiety and sym- 

 pathy for a wounded companion, and for a time seems to 

 forget its own danger. 



The range of the greater yellow-legs is an extensive 

 one which includes America in general. It breeds upon 

 northern Illinois and Iowa northward, and migrates south 

 in the fall as far as Patagonia, some wintering in the Gulf 

 States. In its migrations, it seldom remains more than a 

 day or two at any one station, though the fall passage is 

 somewhat slower than that of spring, when it seems to be 

 in haste to begin the work of nesting. 



YELLOW-LEGS 



This is the bird commonly known to the sportsman as 

 the Lesser or Summer Yellow-legs, or Yellow-legged Plover. 

 In general habits and color there is little difference between 

 this and the greater yellow-legs. The present species, how- 

 ever, is probably more partial to the interior during migra- 

 tions. Yellow-legs winter from the Gulf to Patagonia. 

 Their breeding range is chiefly, if not entirely, north of 

 the United States, but many summer in the Great Lakes 

 region. These waders, like others of their family, do not 

 always breed until they are two years of age, and so many 

 are encountered during the spring and summer in latitudes 

 quite southerly for this sub-arctic shore bird. Arriving in 

 the Great Lakes region after the first warm rains of April, 



