Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/848

YELLOWHAMMER. throat and whole under surface liright lemon yellow, clouded on the breast and flanks with red- dish brown. The female is much less vivid. The yellowhammer frequents hedges and low trees. and jjenerally makes its nest on the around, forminjr it of moss, roots, and hair. The song of the male is very sweet, and consists of few notes, which have been jocularly set to music with the words "A little bit of bread, but no-o cheese." In Italy great numbers of yellowhammers are caught, and fattened like ortolans for the table. See Plate of Buntings and Geosbeaks. YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. See Blackf.ikd. YELLOW JACK. A popular name for the yellow fever (q.v. ) by transfer of meaning from the yellow flag used to announce the presence of contagion in naval hospitals and quarantined vessels. YELLOWJACKET. Any of several species of the smaller yellow-marked social wasps, par- ticularlv Vespa Germanica and Tespa cuneata. See "'.sp. YELLOWLEGS. The popular name of two species of American snipes inhabiting the entire hemisphere; in summer Xorth America is their home, while in winter they wander clear to Pata- gonia. The common or summer yellowlegs ( To- tunus faripcs) is about ten inches long from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, with wings about six inches long. Its flesh is delicious. The greater yellowlegs (Tot anus melanolcucus) is larger, being fourteen inches long, wing eight inches, but similar in appearance, with ashy color above, under parts whitish, with transverse spots and stripes on breast and sides. The two species resemble each other so closely not only in color, but in habits, call-notes, nest and eggs, and haunts, that the size is almost the only con- stant diflerence ; both are very generally known as 'tattlers' or 'yelpers,' because whenever they discover a gunner they raise such a hue and cry as to warn all other birds. See Plate of Beach Birds. YELLOW PERCH. See Perch. YELLOWPLUSH PAPERS. . series of articles by Thackeray, portraying the meteoric rise and fall of a stock-dabbling London tlunky, first published in Fraser's in 1838. They after- wards appeared among the author's Comic Tales and Hketches. The character of Deuceace, Yel- lowplush's early master, is said to be the portrait of a gambler who had cheated Thackeray at Caml)ridge out of his patrimony, and Bulvver is ridiculed under the name of Bulwig. YELLOW RIVER. A river of China. Sec HOANO-HO, YELLOW-RTJMPED WARBLER. See ^rvRTi.i: liirtn. YELLOWS. Sec Peach, paragrapli on Dis- eascs. YELLOW SEA, or Hwano-hai. A large gulf of the Pacific Ocean penetrating 000 miles inland in a northerly direction between Korea and the east coast of China (Map; China, F 4). Its northern shore belongs to Manchuria. It is over HOO miles wide in the south, where it opens widely into the Eastern Sea. which is separated from the Pacific Ocean bv the Loo-choo Islands. 718 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. South of Korea the Korea Strait connects the Yellow Sea with the Sea of .lapan. In the north the large Shantung Peninsula cuts otf the partly land-locked Korea Bay and Gulf of Pe-chi-li. The Yellow Sea is nearly evervwliere less than 300 feet deep. The Korean shore is lined with numerous small islands, and near the Chinese shore there are large sand Ijanks. The sea receives the two great rivers Yangtse-kiang and Hoang-ho. and derives its name from the yellow mud discharged into it by the latter stream. YELLOWSTONE LAKE. The principal lake in the Yellowstone National Park (q.v.). YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. A United States Government reservation set apart as a public pleasure ground and game preserve. It occupies a rectangular area in the northwest- ern corner of Wyoming, overlapping the territory of the States of Montana and Idaho on the north and west by strips of land about two miles wide (Map: Wyoming, D 3). The park measures 54 miles from east to west, and 62 miles from north to south : its area is about 3350 square miles. The Yellowstone Park Forest Reserve, occupy- ing a strip 24 miles wide adjoining the park on the east and a strip 10 miles wide on the south, is practically a portion of the park, and increases the area to 5500 square miles. Yellowstone Park lies in the very heart of the Rocky Mountains. It consists of an elevated plateau basin with a mean altitude of 8000 feet, and surrounded on all sides b}' lofty, snow-clad, and exceedingly rugged mountain ranges. On the eastern boundary runs the Absakora range, a northern extension of the Shoshone Mountains, whose spurs cover the eastern forest reserve with an almost impassable complex of peaks, ranges, and deeply eroded river valleys. Several peaks in the reserve are more than 11,000 feet high, and the Fortress and Dead Indian Peaks rise respectively to altitudes of 12.073 and 12.253 feet. The southern forest reserve is oc- cupied by northern outliers of the lofty Wind River and Teton ranges, the latter running also up the western boundary. The Gallatin range on the northwest and the Snow Mountains on the north complete the barrier. The central basin itself consists of more or less level or un- dulating lava fields, but spurs from the sur- rounding mountains run into it from all direc- tions, volcanic cones and other peaks as well as small isolated mountain groups project from the jilateau floor in numerous places, while most of the larger streams have cut their way through the lava in yawning canons, so that the surface is extremely diversified, and the plateau cut up into a number of separate fields, basins, or jieaks. There are 24 peaks within the park proper whose altitude exceeds 10.000 feet. The loftiest as well as the most rugged portion lies east of Yellow- stone l.iike, where Mount Humphreys and Turret Mountain rise respectively to altitudes of 11,000 and 11.142 feet. Directly on the northern boun- dary, however. Electric Peak towers to a height of 11.1.55 feet, and affords one of the widest views of the park and its surroundings to the north. The Continental Divide crosses the park in an irregular line from the middle of the western boundary to near the southeastern corner, so