224 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



Habits. — Like all its allies, the Yellow-legged Sandpiper is a 

 migratory bird. It arrives at its more southerly breeding grounds 

 in May, but is nearly if not quite a month later in the extreme 

 northern limits of its distribution. Its habits do not differ in any 

 important respect from those of its allies. It frequents moors and 

 tundras during summer, and in autumn and winter muddy creeks, 

 streams, and the shores of lakes and pools, and frequently wades 

 in the shallows. The note of this species is described as an oft- 

 repeated shrill cry, which is imitated by the sportsman, who thus 

 lures the bird within shot whilst on its spring or autumn flights. 

 The food of the Yellow-legged Sandpiper consists of insects and 

 their larvte, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, and, it is said, small 

 fish. The return migration begins in July and lasts through 

 August and September. 



Nidification. — The nest of the Yellow-legged Sandpiper is 

 placed upon the ground, either on the borders of a marsh or 

 near the margin of a pool in the open treeless country. Very 

 often it is under the shelter of a bush. It is simply a little hollow, 

 sometimes, but not always, lined with a few dead leaves and 

 twigs. MacFarlane found nests as early as the 2nd of June, even 

 in the Arctic regions, and in some instances the eggs were 

 hatched by the 19th of June. The eggs are four in number, 

 creamy white or pale grayish brown in ground colour, spotted and 

 blotched with dark reddish brown, and with large and conspicuous 

 underlying markings of gray and grayish brown. They measure 

 on an average i"6s inch in length by I'l inch in breadth. As 

 soon as the young are hatched the old birds become very anxious 

 for their safety when approached by man. MacFarlane observed 

 the male bird perch in a tree near the nest, and both parents 

 flew from tree to tree for a considerable distance, as if enticing 

 him from the vicinity of their treasures. 



Diagnostic Ch&V&ctQTS.^Toianus, with the lower back 

 nearly the same colour as the mantle, with the prevailing colour 

 of the upper tail coverts white, and the axillaries and under wing 

 coverts white sparsely marked with brown. Length of wing, 

 6-1 to 67 inches. Length, 10^ inches. 



