YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 
83 
‘227. TOTANUS FLA PIPES, VIEILL. — SCOLOPAX FLAVIPES , WILSON. 
YELLOW-SHANKS SNIPE. 
WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG. IV. 
Of this species I have but little to say. It inhabits 
our sea coasts and salt marshes during summer; fre- 
quents the flats at low water, and seems particularly 
fond of walking among the mud, where it doubtless 
finds its favourite food in abundance. I have never 
met with its nest, nor with any person acquainted with 
its particular place or manner of breeding. It is a 
plentiful species, and great numbers are brought to 
market in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, parti- 
cularly in autumn. Though these birds do not often 
penetrate far inland, yet, on the 5th September, 
I shot several dozens of them in the meadows of 
Schuylkill, below Philadelphia. There had been a 
violent northeast 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 tern, ap- 
peared at once among the meadows. As a bird for the 
table, the yellow-shanks, when fat, is in considerable 
repute. Its chief residence 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. These birds may be shot down 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. 
Length of the yellow-shanks, ten inches ; extent, 
twenty ; bill, slender, straight, an inch and a half in 
length, and black ; line over the eye, chin, belly, and 
vent, white ; breast and throat, gray ; general colour 
of the plumage above, dusky brown olive, inclining to 
ash, thickly marked with small triangular spots of dull 
