84 TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS. 



white ; tail-coverts, white ; tail, also white, handsomely 

 barred with dark olive; wiring, plain dusky, tin- secon- 

 daries ed^ed, and all the roverts edged and tipt \\itli 

 white ; shafts, hlack ; eye, also hlark ; lejr s and naked 

 thighs, long and yellow ; outer toe, united to the middle 

 one hy a slight membrane ; claws, a horn colour. The 

 female can scarcely be distinguished from the male. 



228. TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS, VIEILL. 



SCOLOPA X VOCIT EJtUS, WILSON. TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR S 

 WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG. T. 



THIS species and the preceding are both well known 

 to our duck-gunners along the sea coast and marshrs, 

 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 speries is ly far 

 the most watchful ; and its thistle, A\hich consists of 

 four notes rapidly repeated, is so loud, shrill, and 

 alarxiing, as instantly to arouse every duck within its 

 hearing, and thus disappoints the eaer expectations of 

 the marksman. Yet the cunning and experience of 

 the latter are 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 tin- marshes, and continues until November, about 

 the middle of which month it generally moves off to 

 the south. The nest, I have heen infuimcd, is built in 

 a tuft of thick grass, generally on the borders of a bog 

 or morass. The female, it is said, Jays four eggs, of a 

 dingy white, irregularly marked with black. 



These birds appear to be unknown in Europe. They 

 are simply mentioned hy Mr Pennant, as having been 

 observed in autumn, feeding on the sands on the lower 



