172 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



255. Lesser Yellow-legs. 



Totanus flavipes (Gmel.) Vieill. 18 16. 



One sent from Greenland to Copenhagen in 1854. {Arct. Man.) 

 This is a common spring and autumn migrant in Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, but rarer than the preced- 

 ing. Reeks says it is a summer resident in'Newfoundland, arriv- 

 ing in May, and leaving in October. Spreadborough observed a 

 number about a small salt marsh on the shore of James Bay on 

 June 15th, 1896, and was sure they were breeding-. They have 

 been observed on Hudson Bay at other points, and, no doubt, 

 breed there. Mr. J. M. Macoun saw a pair evidently breeding on 

 Lake Mistassini, Northern Quebec, in 1885. This species is a 

 common migrant in Manitoba and westward through the whole 

 prairie region and is found in the Rocky Mountains and through- 

 out British Columbia as a migrant, though Fannin found it at 

 Burrard Inlet all summer. Spreadborough saw it first at Indian 

 Head, Assa., on April 25th, I892. By May ist it was common. 

 A few remained to breed as they were seen up to July when he 

 left. Richardson says : — ■" This is a very common bird in the 

 North-west Territories, and is seen either solitary or in pairs on 

 the banks of every river, lake and marsh up to the northern ex- 

 tremity of the continent." Previous to going south from Hudson 

 Bay they gather in small flocks on the shores. 



On the Lower Yukon, in Alaska, this bird is not common, and 

 is very rare along the shores of Behring Sea. In the Upper 

 Yukon region it is, however, more or less common, and skins were 

 brought to me procured at Fort Reliance. Specimens have been 

 taken at Sitka and Kadiak Island, and Mr. Lockhart secured its 

 eggs at Fort Yukon. {Nelson. 



Breeding Notes. — This is probably the most abundant and 

 certainly the noisiest of all the waders met with at Fort Ander- 

 son, in the Barren Grounds. Nests were taken at Fort Anderson, 

 on the Lower Anderson, in the wooded country, and along the 

 rivers which flow through the Barren Grounds. {Macfarlane) 

 Mr. Spreadborough thought a few pairs bred at Indian Head, 

 Assa., in July, 1892 ; and in June, 1897, at Edmonton, in Alberta, 

 he saw them often sitting in dead poplars and upon stubs on 

 the borders of wet meadows, but he could never find any nests. 

 Mr. Dippie writes me that he believes the)' were breeding at 



