494 YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 
mossy maryins of the mountain springs, brooks, and pools, c ecasion- 
ally stopping, looking at you, and perpetually nodding the head. It is 
SO unsuspicious, or so little acquainted with man, as to permit one to 
approach within afew yards of it, without appearing to take any 
notice, or to be the least alarmed. At the approach of cold weather. 
it descends to the muddy shores of our large rivers, where it is occa- 
sionally met with, singly, on its way to the south. I have made many 
long and close searches for the nest of this bird without success. 
They regularly breed on Pocano Mountain, between Easton and 
Wilkesbarre, in Pennsylvanin, arriving there early in May, and depart- 
ing in September. It is usually silent, unless when suddenly flushed, 
when it utters a sharp whistle. 
This species has considerable resemblance, both in manners and 
markings, to the Green Sandpiper of Europe (Z'ringa ochropus ;) but 
differs from that bird in being nearly one third less, and in wanting the 
white rump and tail-coverts of that species; it is also destitute of its 
silky, olive green plumage. How fur north its migrations extend I am 
unable to say. 
The Solitary Sandpiper ts eight inches and a half long, and fifteen 
inches in extent; the bill is one inch and a quarter in length, and 
dusky ; nostrils, pervious ; bill, fluted above and below; line over the 
eye, chin, belly, and vent, pure white; breast, white, spotted with pale 
olive brown; crown and neck above, dark olive, streaked with white ; 
back, scapulars, and rump, dark brown olive, each feather marked along 
the edges with small, round spots of white; wings, plain, and of a 
darker tint ; under tail-covert, spotted with black ; tail, slightly rounded, 
the five exterior feathers on each side, white, broadly barred with black ; 
the two middle ones, as well as their coverts, plain olive ; legs, long, 
slender, and of a dusky green. Male and female alike in color. 
YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. —SCOLOPAX FLAVIPES. — 
Fie. 231. 
Arct. Zool. p. 463, No. 878. — Turt. Syst. 395.— Peale’s Museum, No. 3938. 
TOTANUS FLAVIPES, — ViEiLiot.* 
Lotanus flavipes, Ord’s Edit. p. 59.— Bonap. Cat. p. 26. 
OF this species I have but little to say. It inhabits our sea-coasts 
and salt marshes during summer ; frequents the flats at low water, and 
seems particularly fond of walking among the mud, where it doubtless 
finds its favorite food in abundance, Having never met with its nest, 
by having the shaft of the exterior primary black, whilst that of the glareolus is 
white.” 
The two specimens which Mr. Ord shot, in which all the tail-feathers were barred, 
and which corresponded with 7’. ¢/areola, may have been in fact that species. The 
Prince of Musignano is of opinion that it is also a native of North America. — Ep. 
« T. flavipes seems exclusively American. — Bp. 
gases Eon ferent a re ee ee ee 
