56 



YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 



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 grey; 

 general color 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 co- 

 verts 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 color. The female can 

 scarcely be distinguished from the male. 



