TATLER SNIPE. 357 



ocean. It has been seen in small migratory flocks of up- 

 land plovers and peets. 



TOTANUS Macularius, (Tern.) Spotted tatler, or peet- 

 weet. This is the most common and familiar species of the 

 genus. In the middle of April it is found on all the shores 

 of the rivers of Pennsylvania, leaving in October. It breeds 

 in the " Middle States and to the confines of the St. Law- 

 rence," and does not penetrate remote frigid regions. It 

 wanders from the sea into the remotest interior, however. 

 It is well known by the peculiar balancing of its body and 

 tilting of its tail, and its notes of "weet, weet, weet." 



TOTANUS Bartramius, (Linn.) Bartram's tatler. It is 

 called also upland plover, and "breeds from Pennsylvania 

 to the fur countries of Upper Canada." It is not abundant 

 on the mountain, although common in other places. It comes 

 in May and goes in September. 



SCOLOPAX Wilsonii. The range of this snipe is from 

 Hudson's Bay to Cayenne, numbers wintering in the South- 

 ern States. It comes north in March and lingers until De- 

 cember. As a game bird it has exquisite flavor, and is in 

 great demand among sportsmen. It has nocturnal habits, 

 is shy, wary, and not easily taken. Food, like others of this 

 order of birds, worms, insects, larvae, which are obtained by 

 boring in the mud with its long bill. This is the bird which 

 is supposed by some ornithologists to make a strange and 

 peculiar sound, sometimes heard late in the evening in the 

 regions it frequents. This noise is variously represented by 

 those who attempt to describe it, as a "whistling," "flicker- 

 ing," "singular, tremulous murmuring," "humming, some- 

 what wailing," "whirring, quailing" sound, and is produced 

 by the bird as it mounts in gyratory ascent through the air 

 in the approaching shades of the evening twilight. It is 

 generally invisible when making the sound, which is sup- 

 posed to be produced by the wings, also by an " undulatory 

 motion of air in the throat," etc. From the circumstance 

 that the bird is generally invisible when the sound is made, 

 it has been enveloped in mystery, even mixed with supersti- 



