59 
YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 
TOTJINUS FLJIVIPES. 
[Plate LVIIL— Fig. 4.] 
Arct. Zool. /J. 463, No. 378. — hid. Orn. p. 723, No. 29. — Lath. Sijn. vol. 3, p. 152, jVo. 24. 
— Peale’s Museum^ No. 3938. 
OF this species I have but little to say. It inhabits our sea- 
coasts and salt marshes during summer ; frequents the flats at low 
water, and seems particularly fond of walking among the mud, 
where it doubtless finds its favorite food in abundance. Having 
never met with its nest, nor with any person acquainted with its 
particular place or manner of breeding, I must reserve these mat- 
ters for further observation. It is a plentiful species, and great 
numbers are brought to market in Boston, New York, and riiila- 
delphia, particularly in autumn. On the fifth of September I shot 
several dozens of them in the meadows of Schuylkill, below Phi- 
ladelphia. There had been a violent north-east storm a day or 
two previous, and a large flock of these, accompanied by several 
species of Tringa, and vast numbers of the Short-tailed lern, ap- 
peared at once among the meadows. As a bird for the table the 
Yellow-shanks, when fat, is in considerable repute. Its chief resi- 
deuce is in the vicinity of the sea, where there are extensive mud- 
flats. It has a sharp whistle of three or four notes when about to 
take wing, and when flying. They may be shot with great facility 
if the sportsman, after the first discharge, will only lie close, and 
permit the wounded birds to flutter about without picking them 
up; the flock will generally make a circuit and alight repeatedly, 
until the greater part of them may be shot down. In the early 
part of May, these birds are very common on the muddy-flats of 
