Fall migration.—In south Sweden it leaves in September and also departs from Denmark and Holland about the same time. The passage at the Straits of Gibraltar takes place in September and October and in Malta in September, while in the Iraq marshes the first arrivals take place at the end of July, but the majority come in August, and it is recorded from Fao in August and September, arriving in Egypt in September, while it has occurred as far south as the River Niger in the same month.
Casual records.—It is an occasional visitor on passage to the Canaries and has been met with on Madeira (March 15, April 20, 26, September 24, October 24) as well as in East Greenland (Angmagsalik April 24, May 29).
Egg dates.—In Iceland the eggs are laid from the end of May to early in June, May 28-June 8 (six dates), June 9-18 (five dates). In the British Isles the first eggs are laid at the end of March and through April and May, but late records in May, even in the north, are probably due to second layings: March 28 to April 16 (10 dates); April 17 to 25 (16 dates); April 26 to May 5 (10 dates). In the Shetlands Saxby records the first eggs on May 16. In Holland I have seen some 60 nests between May 11 and 31, but many were undoubtedly second layings. In Salonika eggs have been found as early as March 5.
TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS (Gmelin)
GREATER YELLOW-LEGS
HABITS
The names, telltale and tattler, have long been applied to both of the yellow-legs, and deservedly so, for their noisy, talkative habits are their best known traits. They are always on the alert and ever vigilant to warn their less observant or more trusting companions by their loud, insistent cries of alarm that some danger is approaching. Every sportsman knows this trait and tries to avoid arousing this alarm when other, more desirable, game is likely to be frightened away. And many a yellow-legs has been shot by an angry gunner as a reward for his exasperating loquacity.
The two yellow-legs are still left on our list of game birds, because their numbers do not seem to decrease much in spite of the large numbers that are killed every year by sportsmen. William Brewster (1925) says that he has "failed to note any decided lessening of their numbers in New England during the past 30 or 40 years." This stability in numbers is probably more apparent than real. The birds have been driven from many of their former haunts by increased building of summer colonies, improvements in seashore resorts, draining and filling of marshes, and other changes; so that fewer birds can make the restricted localities seem as well populated as ever.
Spring.—The spring migration of the greater yellow-legs is well marked on both coasts and in the interior, a generally northward trend. It begins in March, reaches the northern States in April and extends through May or even into June, although most of the birds are on their breeding grounds in May. The bulk of the flight passes through Massachusetts in May and through California in April. It seems to avoid the prairie regions of southern Canada; William Rowan tells me that he and C. G. Harrold regard it as "probably the scarcest of the regular waders. In years of steady collecting, during the height of the migration, spring and fall, he (Harrold) has seen the greater yellow-legs only half a dozen times." J. A. Munro tells me that in southern British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, it is much less common in spring than in fall; he has recorded it as early as March 23.
J. R. Whitaker writes to me from Newfoundland that he usually sees the first yellow-legs during early May: "On their first arrival the high tundras are still in the grip of winter and many of the ponds on the lower levels are partly covered with ice." John T. Nichols tells me that it is often abundant on Long Island in the spring. He says in his notes: "In May, 1919, the waters of a certain nontidal coastal creek, due to wind conditions, receded to an unprecedented lowness, leaving broad muddy shores exposed where almost always water stands. In what seemed almost a magical response to the unusual water conditions, about 100 greater yellow-legs assembled at the creek, the largest flock I have ever seen. Alighted, the birds were silent, and without the nervous hikkuping one associates with this species. Once all got up and circled in a compact flock to return to the mud and shallows again."