138 NOTES ON THE 



often do them good service in sounding alarms. These Tattlers 

 indulge on all occasions, a propensity for nodding like Lord 

 Burleigh, or the Chinese Mandarins in front of a tea shop, and 

 when they see something they cannot quite make out, seem to 

 reason with themselves, and finally come to a conclusion in this 

 way; impressing themselves heavily with a sense of their own 

 logic. They go through the bowing exercise with a gravity 

 that may upset that of a disinterested spectator, and yet all 

 through the performance so ludicrous in itself, contrive to pre- 

 serve something of the passive sedateness that marks all their 

 movements. This bobbing of the head and foreparts is the 

 correspondent and counterpart of the still more curious actions 

 of the Spotted Tattlers, or Tip-ups, as they are aptly called 

 from this circumstance; a queer balancing of the body upon 

 the legs, constituting an amusement of which these last named 

 birds are extremely fond. As often as the Tip-up, or Teter- 

 tail, as it is also called, stops in its pursuit of insects, the fore- 

 part of the body is lowered a little, the head drawn in, the legs 

 slightly bent, while the hinder parts and tail are alternately 

 hoisted with a peculiar jerk, and drawn down again with the 

 regularity of clock-work. 



' 'The movement is more conspicuous in the upward than in 

 the downward part of the performance; as if the tail were 

 spring-hinged and in constant danger of flying up, needing 

 constant presence of mind to keep it down. It is amusing to 

 see an old male in the breeding season busy with this opera- 

 tion. Upon some rock jutting out of the water he stands, 

 swelling with amorous pride and self-complacency, puffing out 

 his plumage till he looks twice as big as natural, facing about 

 on his narrow pedestal, and bowing with his hindparts to all 

 points of the compass. A sensitive and fastidious person 

 might see something derisive, if not actually insulting in this, 

 and feel as one may be presumed to have felt when the savages 

 who attacked his ship in canoes showed the signs of contuma- 

 ceous scorn that De Foe records. But it would not be worth 

 while to feel offended, since this is only the entirely original 

 and peculiar way the Tip-up has of conducting his courtships. " 



Much has been said of these peculiarities of the Tip-ups, and 

 with much plausibility, but sad to relate, the ornithological ver- 

 dict is still unproclaimed as to what all the wonderful bowings, 

 and waggings, and puffings really are designed to express. 



Dr. Coues further says: "The solitary Tattlers, that we have 

 lost sight of for the moment, are fond of standing motionless 



