216 THE LARGE YELLOWSHANKS. 



Snipe, he considers the hardest day's tramp well re- 

 warded. 



The Snipe is 11 inches long, bill 2^ or more, grooved on 

 the sides, enlarged at the end, and though smooth in life, 

 becomes marked like a thimble when dried. The crown is 

 deep brown, with median line of brownish-white; sides of 

 the head light reddish-brown, with a dark brown streak 

 from the nostril to the eye, and a whitish spot above, and 

 one in front of the eye; upper parts deep brown, specked, 

 spotted and streaked with reddish-brown and white; wings 

 dusky brown; fore-neck and breast brown and buffy- white, 

 spotted and waved; tail chestnut-red, marked with black 

 and white; under parts white; sides barred with black. 

 The female is a little lighter colored than the male, 



THE LARGE YELLOWSHANKS, 



Firing into a flock of Rusty Grakles, gleaning food from 

 the ground bordering a flooded field in the vicinity of Ton- 

 awanda Swamp, on the 30th of April (1880), I roused a flock 

 of some fifty of the large Yellowshanks (Totanus melanoleu- 

 cus). They rose in the most excited manner only a few 

 rods from me, emitting their loud whistling notes, cree-oo, 

 cree-oo, cree-oo, the volume of which, coming from the whole 

 flock, might well alarm all the feathered tribes in the 

 neighborhood, thus making good their reputation among 

 gunners as Telltales, or Tattlers. With the long bill and 

 neck stretched forward, the long legs extended backward, 

 and the long-pointed wings forming gull-like arcs in their 

 rapid, steady beating, this flock, circling swiftly over the 

 field several times and then fading out in the distance, 

 makes one think of the sea and its multitudes of water-fowl. 



Knowing that these birds will soon be back, I hide behind 

 the fence, ready to give them a salutation. In about half 



