The Lesser Yellowlegs 



legs was outraged by their reckless conduct and 

 departed early. The Killdeer emptied his bas- 

 ket of falsehoods at their devoted heads and 

 really got the Tattlers into quite a panicky state. 

 The Sandpipers, too, left their credulous majors 

 with disgusted yips. Altogether I had a very 

 hard time of it, and succeeded in recording only 

 a few mocking blurs. Two of these birds lingered 

 for two weeks, although the continued influence 

 of evil associates made them photographically 

 impossible. 



Better fortune awaited on the 16th of Aug- 

 ust, 1913, when a company of eleven of these 

 Lesser Yellowlegs was found in the Santa Bar- 

 bara Estero. That was a wonderful day, anyhow, 

 for at the very time the birdman was shuffling 

 about in the ooze, and requesting the Tattlers 

 to "look pleasant please," there were twelve 

 other species of waders within a stone's throw. 

 Their very names (rendered in English) will 

 gladden the heart of the ornithologically elect. 

 They were Wilson Phalarope, Northern Phala- 

 rope, Baird Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Western 

 Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Greater Yellow- 

 legs, Western Solitary Sandpiper, Long-billed 

 Curlew, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, and 

 Snowy Plover. The Killdeer, again, was sowing 

 sedition, but his blasphemous counsels were re- 

 jected. The Yellowlegs preferred the milder 

 society of the Phalaropes and "Westerns" (Ereu- 



netes mauri), and they did not especially object to the company of an 

 ungainly biped who hugged a curious black box. 



It is difficult for a novice to decide upon the identity of this bird, 

 as distinguished from N. melanoleuca. The presence of one of the 

 Greaters on the same pond is, therefore, of great assistance in clarifying 

 first impressions. On this same day I had the good fortune to glimpse 

 the two species in close company. The tableau lasted but a moment, for 

 upon the instant of discovery I swung upon them with the Graflex, as one 

 would level a gun, and at the report of the shutter they were off like 

 rockets. As they flew, they made outcry in two different keys of Totanine 

 indignation, the notes of these two species being even more distinct as a 

 measure of difference than the relative size of their bodies. 



Taken in Santa Barbara 

 Photo by the Author 



A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE 

 YELLOVVLEGOLOGY 



BOTH SPECIES, GREATER AND LESSER. 

 WERE SECURED BY ONE LUCKY SHOT 



1267 



