VELLOW-LEGS. 
155 
that season. These birds reside chiefly in the salt-marshes, 
and frequent low flats and estuaries at the ebb of the tide, 
wading in the mud in quest of worms, insects, and other small 
marine and fluviatile animals. They seldom leave these mari- 
time situations, except driven from the coast by storms, when 
they may occasionally be seen in low and wet meadows as far 
inland as the extent of tide-water. The Yellow-Shanks have a 
sharp whistle of three or four short notes, which they repeat 
when alarmed and when flying, and sometimes utter a simple, 
low, and rather hoarse call, which passes from one to the 
other at the moment of rising on the wing. They are very 
impatient of any intrusion on their haunts, and thus often 
betray, like the preceding, the approach of the sportsman to 
the less vigilant of the feathered tribes, by flying around his 
head, with hanging legs and drooping wings, uttering incessant 
and querulous cries. 
How far they proceed to the South in the course of the 
winter is yet unknown ; they however, I believe, leave the 
boundaries of the Union. At the approach of winter, previous 
to their departure for the South, they are observed to collect 
in small flocks and halt for a time on the shores of Hudson 
Bay. Accumulated numbers are now' also seen to visit New 
England, though many probably pass on to their hibernal 
retreats by an inland route like the preceding, having indeed 
been seen in the spring on the shores of the Missouri in par- 
ticular situations by Mr. Say. They also seem to reside no less 
in the interior than on the coast, as they were observed on 
the shores of Red River, of Take Winnipeg (latitude 49 de- 
grees), on the nth of August by the same gentleman; thus 
subsisting indifferently on the productions of fresh as well as 
salt water. At the approach of autumn small flocks here also 
accompany the Upland Plover (Totanus bartramius) , flying 
high and whistling as they proceed inland to feed, but return- 
ing again towards the marshes of the sea-coast to roost. Some- 
times, and perhaps more commonly at the approach of stormy 
weather, they are seen in small restless bands roving over the 
salt-marshes and tacking and turning along the meanders of 
