On June 6th of the following year I was out on that tundra again and worked my way towards where we had found the nest, but never saw or heard a sign of the bird. However, I went to the old nest and when within 3 feet to my astonishment saw a yellow-shank lying flat on the nest. I could hardly believe my eyes. I watched her for some time as she sat there perfectly motionless; on putting her up, she began to scold loudly, sometimes flying close round my head and then she would perch on a dead bush near, bobbing her head, uttering tee erk, tee erk, tee erk all the time. Four beautiful eggs lay in the slight depression. I had been there fully 15 minutes when away in the far distance I heard another yellow-shank which quickly approached and was evidently the mate, for they both continued their abuse until I was out of sight. It very often happens that the male bird is not within miles of the incubating female, and under these conditions finding a nest is a mere fluke. There is one rule which holds good in all the nests I have found, and this is that a yellow-legs never nests on ground which is too soft to scratch in. There must be soil or dry, hard peat. I once found a nest on a boulder which had a thin covering of peat and reindeer moss on it, whilst the surrounding ground was wet and mossy, so being unsuitable for making a scratch. The nest is nearly always placed quite close to a flashet or pond of water; I have only twice seen a nest at a distance of 20 yards from any water hole.
William Brewster (1883) found the greater yellow-legs abundant on Anticosti Island in July and, although he found no eggs or young, he obtained "the strongest circumstantial evidence" that the birds were breeding there. The fact that this island has been for many years a protected sanctuary may have had some effect in keeping up the supply of these birds.
Fifty years or more ago Dr. E. W. Nelson (1877a) found several pairs of greater yellow-legs about the Calumet Marshes, which from their actions he felt sure were breeding there. He records a nest and four eggs found near Evanston, Illinois, in June, 1876; "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."
Ernest S. Norman (1915) while driving over a soft and spongy spot in a swamp, in Manitoba, in which his team nearly became mired, was surprised to see a greater yellow-legs fly up from its nest within 1 foot of the front wheel of the wagon. The nest, which contained four heavily incubated eggs on June 24, is thus described:
The nest was just a depression in the moss, with a few bits of ivy grass as a lining. It had no shelter whatever, as a fire had swept over the place about a month previous to the finding of the nest so that there was not even grass growing anywhere near the nest.
Eggs.—The four eggs, usually comprising the set, of the greater yellow-legs are ovate pyriform in shape and have a slight gloss. They are rather handsomely marked and are practically indistinguishable from eggs of the European greenshank. The ordinary ground colors are pale buff, "light buff" to "cartridge buff." They are irregularly spotted and blotched, chiefly about the larger end, with dark browns, "bay," "liver brown," and "chestnut brown," and with conspicuous underlying spots and blotches of various shades of "purple-drab." An especially handsome set in my collection, one of the most beautiful sets of waders' eggs I have ever seen, is richly colored in reddish browns. The ground colors vary from "pinkish buff" to "orange-cinnamon" or "sayal brown." The four eggs are heavily and boldly marked with large, longitudinal blotches and splashes of rich browns, "claret brown," "mahogany red," and "bay," over underlying blotches, nearly concealed, of various shades of "purple drab." The measurements of 51 eggs average 48.9 by 33 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 53.5 by 33.8, 51.8 by 35.1, 43.7 by 31.5, and 44.9 by 30.8 millimeters.
Young.—We have no data as to the period of incubation or in what way the sexes share it. Both sexes share in the care of the young, which are brooded by the female for the first day. The young birds referred to by Mr. Whitaker had left the nest on the second day.
Plumages.—In the downy young greater yellow-legs a median stripe of "bone brown" extends from the bill upwards, increasing in width until it covers the whole of the occiput; a wide loral stripe of brownish black extends from the bill to the eye; the forehead and sides of the crown are silvery gray; and the cheeks and throat are silky white. The rest of the upper parts, hind neck to rump, are variegated or heavily blotched with "bone brown," "wood brown," and pale buff, the dark color predominating, especially on the rump. The under parts are grayish white, almost gray on the breast.
The juvenal plumage appears first on the scapulars and back and then on the breast. Two young birds, about half grown on June 30, are fully feathered on the mantle; the breast is well feathered, but covered with white downy tips, the wings are half grown, but the tail has not appeared; the crown is "bister," streaked with white; the feathers of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts are "bister" or "warm sepia," spotted or notched with "pinkish buff" or buffy white, whitest on the upper back and most buffy on the scapulars; the sides of the neck and upper breast are streaked with and the flanks are barred with dusky; the rest of the under parts are white. This plumage is worn for three months or more, well into October. Young birds are in this plumage when they pass us on migration, but the buffy tints have mostly faded out to white.
Beginning in October a partial postjuvenal molt takes place involving the body plumage, most of the scapulars, and some of the wing coverts. This produces a first winter plumage which is similar to that of the adult, but the general tone of the upper parts is grayer and the feathers of the mantle are edged with dull white. The type of William Brewster's Lower California race, frazari, and most of his series of it are in this plumage.