60 
YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 
our rivers, particularly in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and are then 
in good condition. 
Length of the Yellow-shanks upwards of ten inches, breadth 
twenty inches ; irides brown ; bill slender, straight, an inch and a 
half in length, and black, mandibles of equal length, the upper 
bent downwards at the tip ; throat, lower parts, thighs, and under 
tail-coverts, white — the last are generally marked on their exterior 
vanes with brown ; those next to the tail barred with the same ; 
lower part of the neck, with the breast, gray, the feathers streaked 
down their centres with dusky ; head and back part of the neck 
black, the plumage edged with gray, in some specimens edged with 
brown ash ; upper parts black, with oblong spots of white, inter- 
mixed with pale brown feathers ; rump brown, edged with white ; 
upper tail-coverts white, barred with brown ; the tail is composed 
of twelve feathers, white, barred with ashy brown, the upper fea- 
thers, in some, gray brown, marked on their vanes, though not 
across, with brown and white ; wings, when closed, extend some- 
what beyond the tail ; primaries and secondaries dusky ; shaft of 
first primary whitish above, the rest of the shafts brown above, in 
some black, all white below ; lesser wing-coverts dusky, slightly 
edged with white, and in some spotted with brown on the exterior 
vanes ; secondaries slightly edged with white ; legs bare above the 
knees upwards of an inch ; length of tarsus two inches ; outer toe 
connected as far as the first joint to the middle one, the membrane 
of the inner toe quite small ; legs and feet yellow ochre ; the claw 
of the middle toe has the appearance of having a supplemental 
nail at its base. This was a female shot the 22d April. A young 
male, shot at the same time, had its upper parts mixed with cine- 
reous. The sexes can hardly be distinguished. 
