TELL-TALE G OD W IT, o r S N I PE. 335 



come of a pale dun color above, the plumage being sbafted with dark 

 brown, and the tail white, or nearly so. At this season they are ex- 

 tremely fat, and esteemed excellent eating. Experienced gunners 

 always select the lightest colored ones from a flock, as being uniformly 

 the fattest. 



The female of this species is generally larger than the male. In the 

 months of October and November they gradually disappear. 



Species VI. SCOLOPAX YOCIFERUS. 



TELL-TALE GODWIT, or SNIPE. 



[Plate LVIII. Fig. 6] 



Stone Snipe, Arct. Zool. p. 468, No. 376.— TuRT. Sysl. p. 396.* 



This species, and the preceding, are both well known to our Duck- 

 gunners, along the sea-coast and marshes, by whom they are detested, 

 and stigmatized with the names of the greater and lesser Tell-tale, for 

 their faithful vigilance in alarming the Ducks with their loud and shrill 

 whistle, on the first glimpse of the gunner's approach. Of the two the 

 present species is by far the most watchful ; and its whistle, which con- 

 sists of four notes rapidly repeated, is so loud, shrill and alarming, as 

 instantly to arouse every Duck within its hearing, and thus disappoints 

 the eager expectations of the shooter. Yet the cunning and experience 

 of the latter, is frequently more than a match for all of them, and 

 before the poor Tell-tale is aware, his warning voice is hushed for ever, 

 and his dead body mingled with those of his associates. 



This bird arrives on our coast early in April, breeds in the marshes, 

 and continues until November, about the middle of which month it 

 generally moves off to the south. The nest, I have been informed, is 

 built in a tuft of thick grass, generally on the borders of a bog or morass. 

 The female, it is said, lays four eggs, of a dingy white, irregularly 

 marked with black. 



These birds appear to be unknown in Europe. They are simply 

 mentioned by Mr. Pennant, as having been observed in autumn, feed- 

 ing on the sands on the lower part of Chatteaux Bay, eontiimally 

 nodding their heads ; and were called there Stone Curlew.?. f 



* Scolnpax melanoleuca, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 5.59, No. 32. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 723, 

 No. 28. — Spotted Snipe, Lath. Syn. iii., p. 149, var. A. Totanus melanolcucos, 

 Ori), reprint, vii., p. 61. 



t Arct. Zool. p. 408. 



