484 BIRDS—SCOLOPACID A. 
Common spring and fall migrant, but more numerous in fall than in 
spring. The Greater Telltale is generally found in pairs, less often in 
small flocks, on the gravelly or rocky banks of streams. Its association 
with other Sandpipers is merely accidental. In the Hastern States it 
appears to be much more wary than with us, and it is said to give warn- 
ing to ducks and other game birds of the approach of the gunner. With 
us it is not difficult to approach, while its large size, harsh scream, and 
singular habit of tipping or jerking its body backward and forward on 
its long legs, render it a conspicuous object. 
Mr. Nelson (Bulletin of the Wssex Institute, viii, 1876, 128), gives the 
following, the only account of their nesting which I have seen. The 
locality is in the State of Illinois: 
‘In June, 1875, I found several pairs of these birds about the Calumet Marshes, where, 
from their actions, I was certain they were breeding, but was not fortunate enough to 
find their nests. The 10th of June, 1876, Mr. Rice observed a pair about a prairie slough 
near Evanston. <A few days later a set of four eggs were brought him from a similar 
situation a few miles northwest of that place, and from the description of the parent 
bird—driven from the nest—he decided they must belong to this species. I perfectly 
agree with Mr. Rice’s decision, for the prominent characteristics noticed by the collector 
are obviously applicable to this bird. m 
The nest was situated in a slight depression at the base of a small hillock near the 
border of a prairie slough, and was composed of grass stems and blades. The eggs meas- 
ure respectively 1.70 by 1.20; 1.72 by 1.31; 1.74 by 1.31; 1.80 by 1.38 inches. The 
ground color is a deep grayish-white, marked on three eggs with spots of dark-brown, 
and on the other egg with spots and well-defined blotches of a considerably lighter 
shade of the same. In addition there are shell markings and obscured spots of lilac. 
The markings are disposed quite abundantly over the surface of the egg, but are more 
numerous about the large end” 
TOTANUS FLAVIPES (Gm.) Vieillot. 
YW ellow-shanks, 
Totanus flavipes, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1833, 161.—WHEATON, Food of Birds, 
etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 573; Reprint, 1875, 13.—Lanepon, Cat. Birds of Cin. 
1877, 15; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183; Reprint, 17; Sum- 
mer Birds, ib., ili, 1860, 227. 
Gambetia flavipes, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep, for 1860, 369; Reprint, 1861, 11. 
Soolopax flavipes, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 659. 
Fotanus flavipes, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., 1816, 400. 
Gambetta flavipes, BONAPARTE, Comp. Rend., 1856. 
A minature of the last; colors precisely the same} legs comparatively longer ; bill 
grooved rather farther. Length, under 12; wing, under 7; tail, under 3; bill, under 
2; tarsus, about 2; middle toe and claw, and bare tibia, each 13. 
Habitat, Western Hemisphere. Breeds from the Northern States northward. Many 
winter in the Southern States. Accidental in Europe. 
