BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
89 
Common spring and fall migrant, but more numerous in the fall — 
from last of August to middle of October — than in spring. At Lake 
Erie this species is often seen in small flocks, but in other parts of the 
state it is mostly found singly or in pairs, inhabiting the same localities 
as the Lesser Tell-tale. The Greater Yellow -legs feeds sometimes, it is 
said, on small fish. A dozen or more of these birds which I have ex- 
amined had in their stomach chiefly different kinds of insects, worms 
and small particles of shells. 
Totanus flavipes (Gmel.). 
Yellow-legs; Lesser Tell-tale ; Yellow-shanks. 
Description. 
This bird is a miniature of the Greater Yellow-legs ; colors the same. Length about 
10 or 11 inches ; extent about 19 or 21 ; bill never two inches long, and in three birds 
before me the bills average a trifle less than one and one-half inches. 
Habitat . — America in general, breeding in the cold temperate and subarctic 
districts, and migrating south in winter to southern South America. Less common 
in the western than the eastern province of North America. 
The Yellow-legs, commonly known along the sea-shore as “Little 
Yellow-leg-Tell-tale,” is quite frequently found in Pennsylvania during 
migrations. Although often seen in spring, it is most numerous during 
the last of August and in September. At Erie bay this bird, also the 
Greater Yellow-legs, is quite common from the latter part of August 
until, some seasons, as late as the first week in November. It is gener- 
ally found in the interior, singly or in pairs, and sometimes, though not 
often, in parties of five or six. I have often found them about ponds, 
pools, and muddy flats, never along streams of running water, unless 
the borders of such streams were muddy and destitute of grasses and 
other vegetation. Dr. Ezra Michener, in a list of the Chester county 
birds, published in 1863, says this species is a “ frequent summer resi- 
dent.” I have never known this bird to occur in Chester county as a 
summer resident, and am satisfied that it is now found in Chester county 
and throughout Pennsylvania only as a spring and autumnal migrant. 
The food-materials of thirteen of these birds examined by the writer 
are given in the following table; 
No. 
Date. 
Local IT V. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
April 30. 18T9 
Chester county. Pa 
Insects, cliietiy beetles. 
•i 
May 7, 1879 
Chester county. Pa 
Small • • worms. ” 
8 
Aug. 27, 1879, 
Assomack county, Va 
Insects. 
4 
Aug. 27, 1879 
Assomack county. Va 
Insects. 
5 
Aug. 27, 1879 
Assomack county. Va 
Insects. 
6 
Sept. — , 1882 
Brigantine, N. J 
Small ‘ ‘ worms. " 
r 
Sept. — , 1882 
Brigantine, N. J 
Small • ‘ worms. " 
8 
Sept. — , 1882 
Brigantine. N. J . 
Beetles. 
9 
Aug. 30, 1882 
Chester county, Pa 
Insects. 
10 
Oct. 10. 1880. 
Chester county. Pa 
Beetles and ‘ * worms. " 
11 
Oct. 10, 1880 
Chester county. Pa 
Insects and fragments of shells. 
12 
Oct. 10, 1880 
Chester county, Pa 
Insects. 
13 
Oct. 10, 1880 
Chester county. Pa. 
Insects 
