YELLOW-LEGS. 155 



that season. These birds reside chiefly in the salt-marshes, 

 and frequent low flats and estuaries at the ebb of the tide, 

 wading in the mud in quest of worms, insects, and other small 

 marine and fluviatile animals. They seldom leave these mari- 

 time situations, except driven from the coast by storms, when 

 they may occasionally be seen in low and wet meadows as far 

 inland as the extent of tide-water. The Yellow-Shanks have a 

 sharp whistle of three or four short notes, which they repeat 

 when alarmed and when flying, and sometimes utter a simple, 

 low, and rather hoarse call, which passes from one to the 

 other at the moment of rising on the wing. They are very 

 impatient of any intrusion on their haunts, and thus often 

 betray, like the preceding, the approach of the sportsman to 

 the less vigilant of the feathered tribes, by flying around his 

 head, with hanging legs and drooping wings, uttering incessant 

 and querulous cries. 



How far they proceed to the South in the course of the 

 winter is yet unknown ; they however, I believe, leave the 

 boundaries of the Union. At the approach of winter, previous 

 to their departure for the South, they are observed to collect 

 in small flocks and halt for a time on the shores of Hudson 

 Bay. Accumulated numbers are now also seen to visit New 

 England, though many probably pass on to their hibernal 

 retreats by an inland route like the preceding, having indeed 

 been seen in the spring on the shores of the Missouri in par- 

 ticular situations by Mr. Say. They also seem to reside no less 

 in the interior than on the coast, as they were observed on 

 the shores of Red River, of Lake Winnipeg (latitude 49 de- 

 grees), on the nth of August by the same gentleman; thus 

 subsisting indifferently on the productions of fresh as well as 

 salt water. At the approach of autumn small flocks here also 

 accompany the Upland Plover {Totanus bartramius) , flying 

 high and whistling as they proceed inland to feed, but return- 

 ing again towards the marshes of the sea-coast to roost. Some- 

 times, and perhaps more commonly at the approach of stormy 

 weather, they are seen in small restless bands roving over the 

 salt-marshes and tacking and turning along the meanders of 



