YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 



3? I 



mud, where it doubtless finds its favourite food in abundance. 

 Having never met with its nest, nor with any person acquainted 

 with its particular place or manner of breeding, I must reserve 

 these matters for further observation. It is a plentiful species, 

 and great numbers are brought to market in Boston, New 

 York, and Philadelphia, particularly jin autumn. Though 

 these birds do not often penetrate far inland, yet, on the 5th 

 of September, I shot several dozens of them in the meadows 

 of Schuylkill, below Philadelphia. There had been a violent 

 north-east storm a day or two previous, and a large flock of 

 these, accompanied by several species of Tringa, and vast 

 numbers of the short-tailed tern, appeared at once among the 

 meadows. As a bird for the table, the yellow-shanks, when 

 fat, is in considerable repute. Its chief residence is in the 

 vicinity of the sea, where there are extensive mud flats. It 

 has a sharp whistle, of three or four notes, when about to 

 take wing and when flying. These birds may be shot down 

 with great facility, if the sportsman, after the first discharge, 

 will only lie close, and permit the wounded birds to flutter 

 about without picking them up ; the flock will generally make 

 a circuit, and alight repeatedly, until the greater part of them 

 may be shot clown. 



Length of the yellow-shanks, ten inches ; extent, twenty ; 

 bill, slender, straight, an inch and a half in length, and black ; 

 line over the eye, chin, belly, and vent, white ; breast and 

 throat, gray ; general colour of the plumage above, dusky 

 brown olive, inclining to ash, thickly marked with small 

 triangular spots of dull white ; tail-coverts, white ; tail, also 

 white, handsomely barred with dark olive ; wings, plain dusky, 

 the secondaries edged, and all the coverts edged and tipt with 

 white ; shafts, black ; eye, also black ; legs and naked thighs, 

 long and yellow ; outer toe, united to the middle one by a 

 slight membrane; claws, a horn colour. The female can 

 scarcely be distinguished from the male. 



