Shore Birds of Cape Cod. 
John C. Oahoon. 
Greater Yellow-legs, Totanus melanoleucus, 
(Gmel.) “Winter Yellow-legs” or Cue’u on 
Cape Cod. A common spring and autumn 
I migrant. This is one of the first shore birds to 
reach the Cape in the spring, and migrants are 
seen as early as April 15th in a forward spring. 
The first comers usually arrive at the Cape 
j from the 25th of April to May 5th, becoming 
common the 10th or loth and none are gener- 
ally seen after June 15th. In the autumn the 
first ones arrive about July 21st and are seen in 
j small numbers at intervals from this time un- 
til October 1st. From the 25th of September to 
October 15th they are the most plentiful, as 
during this period the “flights” usually occur. 
They are tolerably common until the middle of 
November and because of this protracted stay 
in the autumn are called “Winter Yellow-legs” 
to distinguish them from the succeeding species, 
which is much smaller. They are found on 
fresh and salt water marshes, about muddy 
1 creeks and on low beaches and on the sand 
flats, about the edges of sedge grass. Its fa- 
vorite resorts, however, are salt marshes and 
ffceadows near the beaches and flats. Its long 
yellow legs enable it to wade about in shallow 
water after the tiny fish which is its principal 
. food. Though usually seen singly or in small 
parties of three to six I have seen as many as 
thirty in one flock in October. They often go 
on to the high beaches to roost with other birds. 
It is a very noisy bird and its loud shrill wlns-_ 
tie of Six Or intrFelfSpTiJly I'epSSfSt notes with a 
short interval between the second and third like 
| cu-cu — cu-cu-cu-cu is often used to warn other 
shore birds and water fowl of danger approach- 
' ing. I have on several occasions been tempted 
to “shock the bishop,” when crawling tow- 
ards a flock of plover on the marshes, to have 
one of these tattlers which had been watching 
me for several moments get up from the marsh 
and vociferate his alarm notes with such success 
as to cause most of the birds on the marsh to 
hastily seek safer quarters. Their note is easy 
to imitate and as they are not wary many are 
despatched from blinds made in the tall sedge 
grass at the edge of flats where they come to 
feed as soon as the tide ebbs sufliciently to allow 
them to wade about. When standing still or 
walking about they have a peculiar motion of 
nodding their heads and tilting their bodies up 
and down with a sort of jerk. Like most of our 
other shore birds a marked decrease is noticed 
in their ranks during the last five seasons. 
0.& O. XIII. Sept. 1888 p. ISO 
