390 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[158.] 3. Totanus flavipes. (Vieillot.) Yellow-shanks Toiler. 



Genus, Totanus, Beciistein. 



Yellow. shanks Snipe. Penn., Arct. Zool., ii., p. 4G8, No. 378. Wilson, vii., p. 55, pi. 58, f. 4. 

 Totanus flavipes (Yellow-legged Godivit), Sab. Frank. Journ., p. 688. Bonap. Syra., No. 261. 

 Sassasees, Ciiee Indians. Lesser Tell-tale, United States. 



This is a very common bird in the fur-countries, and is seen either solitary 

 or in pairs on the banks of every river, lake, and marsh, up to the northern 

 extremity of the continent. It is very impatient of any intrusion on its haunts, 

 and often betrays the approach of the sportsman to the less vigilant of the 

 feathered tribes, by flying round his head, its legs hanging down, and wings 

 drooping, and uttering its incessant though plaintive cries. Previous to its 

 retreating southwards, on the approach of winter, it collects in small flocks, and 

 halts for a time on the shores of Hudson's Bay. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male killed at Fort Franklin, May 16, 1826. 



Colour. — Top of the head and neck blackish-brown, edged with greyish-white. Fore 

 part of the back, scapulars, greater coverts, and tertiaries, blotched and barred with blackish- 

 brown, and marked with marginal triangular spots of brownish-white. Posterior part of the 

 back, lesser coverts, and secondaries, clove-brown, narrowly edged round with white. 

 Greater quills blackish-brown ; the shaft of the first one white. Two central pairs of tail 

 feathers broccoli-brown ; the lateral ones and the coverts white, all barred with blackish- 

 brown ; less distinctly on the coverts. Eye stripe, chin, and under plumage, white, streaked 

 on the neck and barred on the sides of the breast and belly with blackish-brown. Bill black. 

 Legs yellow. 



Form. — Bill moderately long, straight; upper mandible grooved half its length, its acute 

 tip turning down. Wings a little longer than the tail. Tarsus longer than the bill. Fore 

 toes connected by small webs ; the inner web half the size of the exterior one. 



Dimensions 

 Of the male. 



Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. 



Length, total . . !) 8 Length of hill to rictus . 1 5 Length of middle nail . 2 



„ of tail . .29 „ of tarsus - .20 „ of hind toe . 3k 



„ of wing . . 5 11 „ of middle toe 1 lj „ of its nail . .0 1 



„ of bill above • 1 4 



The female is larger in all its dimensions, being li inch longer. The plumage is alike in 

 both sexes. 



