In very dry weather, I have observed this species on the uplands searching for grasshoppers and insects. It has been alleged that when one is wounded, its companions hover around so as to be easily shot; but this I have never observed, for although they are perhaps less shy than the Tell-tales, on such occasions, I never found one of them to remain; they seemed, on the contrary, to be well aware of the danger, and would fly quite out of sight, rising high in the air, and pursuing a direct course, emitting cries at intervals.
Along the shores of the sea, they are now and then seen in company with other species, although they cannot be said actually to associate with them. In autumn they become fat, and by many are considered good eating, although they always have a kind of fishy taste not at all agreeable to my palate. Their food consists of diminutive fishes, shrimps, worms, and aquatic insects.
I have represented one of these birds on the fore ground of a little piece of water a few miles distant from Charleston in South Carolina, on the borders of which, in the company of my kind friend John Bachman and others, I have spent many a pleasant hour, while resting after fatiguing rambles in the surrounding woods.
Scolopax flavipes, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 723.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 324.
Yellowshanks Snipe, Scolopax flavipes, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 55. pl. 58. fig. 4.
Totanus flavipes, Yellowshanks Tatler, Swains. and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 390.
Yellowshanks Tatler, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 152.
Adult Male in Summer. Plate CCLXXXVIII. Fig. 1.
Bill a little longer than the head, very slender, subcylindrical, straight, flexible, compressed at the base, the point rather depressed and obtuse. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge convex, broader at the base, slightly depressed towards the end, the sides sloping, towards the end convex, the edges soft and obtuse, the tip slightly deflected. Nasal groove long and narrow, extending to a little beyond the middle of the bill; nostrils basal, linear, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle very long and extremely narrow, the dorsal line straight, the sides convex, with a slight groove in their basal half.
Head small, oblong, anteriorly narrowed. Eyes large. Neck rather long and slender. Body slender. Feet very long, slender; tibia bare for half its length, scutellate before and behind; tarsus also scutellate before and behind; hind toe very small and elevated; fore toes of moderate length, very slender, connected at the base by webs, of which the outer is much larger; second or inner toe considerably shorter than fourth, third longest; all scutellate above, flat and marginate beneath. Claws small, slightly arched, much compressed, obtuse, that of middle toe much larger, with the inner edge enlarged.