It took its name from an old cannon that stands on top of the hill. Kanoni is actually a quarter of Corfu Town, just a couple of km from the city centre. Kanoni, the church of Panagia Vlacherna and the Mouse Island in Corfu: The location of Kanoni with the church of Panagia Vlacherna below and the Mouse Island (Pontikonissi) are the most famous and photographed spots of Corfu. Yellowlegs, for instance, are also called tattlers because these high-strung birds would be the first to raise a noisy alarm when shooters were spotted. The common names of large pipers often derive from the hunting era.

Now shorebirds are protected, but only after many species were brought to the edge of extinction. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many a fashionable restaurant featured gourmet meals with willet or curlew. Large sandpipers were once popular game for bird hunters.

The specific melanoleuca is from Ancient Greek melas, 'black', and leukos, 'white'. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large North American shorebird.

Flickrmail