36 
BIRDS 01"^ DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
Totanus flavipes. Lesser Yp:llow-legs. 255. 
The Lesser or Summer Yellow-legs, is a common migrant in August 
and September, but beach gunners say they never see it in the spring, 
when in haste to reach its northern breeding grounds, probably it 
keeps far to the eastward of our coast, in a direct course from southern 
to northern shores. In its food and general habits it is similar to the 
Greater Yellow-legs. 
Helodromus solitarius. Solitary Sandpiper. 256. 
Solitary Sandpipers may be found common, singly or in small 
flocks, in August and September, and again in the last half of May and 
early June in one instance a pair remained at Hampton till June 10. 
They frequent grassy shores and inundated marshes or meadows, in 
preference to sandy beaches. Like the Yellow-legs they are real 
waders, frequently going into water quite up to their bodies, in their 
search for aquatic insects and larvas. The Solitary and Spotted 
Sandpipers are the only sandpipers commonly seen about tresh water. 
They may be distinguished as they fly by the tail, the Solitary 
having the outer rectrices mainly white, while in the Spotted Sand- 
piper's tail there are no white feathers. 
Symphemia semipalmata,. Willet. 258.. 
This large Sandpiper, which measures a little more than the Greater 
Yellow-legs, is readily known by its blue legs, its stout, straight bill,, 
and semipalmated feet. It is a rather irregular migrant along the 
coast, generally seen in autumn, if at all. 
Bartramia longicauda. Bartramian Sandpiper. 261. 
The Bartramian Sandpiper is a common summer resident on the 
high lands of this state, but it is not often seen here. Occasionally 
one is shot on the marshes in August or September, and I have twice 
heard the trilled cry of a migrant going over the village, once on the 
eleventh of May and once on the twenty-ninth of August. On many 
a hill farm nearer the mountains, this trim bird is a familiar object in 
the fields and pastures. Its gentle ways have found favor with the 
housewife, v/ho calls it the "little turkey, ''' because, as it runs through 
the grass, it suggests her favorite poultry. The small boy knows the 
clear trilled whistle, which it utters as it flies high overhead on still 
mornings in the breeding season. He observes its anxiety for the 
safety of its young during the hay harvest, and after the fields are 
cleared of their burden, and left brown and bare, he is able to find 
