Yellow Legs, or Lesser Tell tale sometimes called Yellow-leg Snipe,
and Little Cucu, inhabits the whole of North America, nesting in the
cold temperate and subarctic districts of the northern continent,
migrating south in winter to Argentine and Chili. It is much rarer in
the western than eastern province of North America, and is only
accidental in Europe. It is one of the wading birds, its food
consisting of larvae of insects, small shell fish and the like.
The nest of the Lesser Yellow Shanks, which it is sometimes called,
is a mere depression in the ground, without any lining. Sometimes,
however, it is placed at the foot of a bush, with a scanty lining
of withered leaves. Four eggs of light drab, buffy or cream color,
sometimes of light brown, are laid, and the breast of the female is
found to be bare of feathers when engaged in rearing the young. The
Lesser Yellow legs breeds in central Ohio and Illinois, where it is
a regular summer resident, arriving about the middle of April, the
larger portion of flocks passing north early in May and returning
about the first of September to remain until the last of October.
A nest of this species of Snipe was found situated in a slight
depression at the base of a small hillock near the border of a prairie
slough near Evanston, Illinois, and was made of grass stems and
blades. The color of the eggs in this instance was a deep grayish
white, three of which were marked with spots of dark brown, and the
fourth egg with spots and well defined blotches of a considerably
lighter shade of the same.
[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
YELLOW LEGS.]
[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
SKY LARK.]