BIKDS OF INDIANA. 725 



suiting, in this, and feel as Crusoe may be presumed to have felt when 

 the savages who attacked his ship in canoes showed the signs of con- 

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

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

 culiar way the Tip-up has of conducting his courtships. Ornitholo- 

 gists are not agreed upon the useful purpose subserved in this way, 

 and have yet failed to account for the extraordinary performance. The 

 Solitary Tattlers, that we have lost sight of for a moment, are fond of 

 standing motionless in the water, when they have satisfied their hun- 

 ger, or of wading about, up to their bellies, with slow, measured steps. 

 If startled at such times, they rise easily and lightly on wing, fly 

 rather slowly a little distance, with dangling legs and outstretched 

 neck, to soon realight and look about with a dazed expression. Just 

 as their feet touch the ground, the long, pointed wings are lifted till 

 their tips nearly meet above, and are then deliberately folded." 



The Eskimo Curlews and some other birds have the same habit. 



The Tattlers are unusually silent birds, but when suddenly alarmed 

 they utter a low and rather pleasing whistle as they fly off, or even 

 withoiit moving. 



54. GENUS SYMPHEMIA RAFINBSQUK. 



a 1 . Wing 8.00. S. semipalmata (Gmel.). 105 



a 2 . Wing 8.50. S. semipalmata inornata Brewst. 106 



105. (258). Symphemia semipalmata (GMEL.). 



Willett. 

 Synonym, SEMIPAL.MATED TATTLER. 



Adult in Summer. Bill, straight, comparatively stout, groved little, 

 if any, more than half its length; brownish-olive above, with numerous 

 black marks; white, below; the jugulum, streaked; the breast, sides 

 and crissum, barred or with arrow-shaped marks of dusky; middle tail 

 feathers, ashy, barred with blackish, side ones, whitish, variegated 

 with grayish. Winter. Above, plain ashy-gray; beneath, dull white, 

 unspotted; foreneck shaded with grayish; tail not barred; upper tail 

 coverts, most of the secondaries and basal half of primaries, white; 

 spread wing, with conspicuous white patch; ends of primaries, their 

 coverts, lining of wings and axillars, black; bill, bluish or dark; toes, 

 with two conspicuous basal webs. Immature. Above, brownish-gray, 

 feathers margined and sides tinged with ochraceous. 



Length, 15.00; wing, 8.00; tarsus, 2.30; bill, 2.20. 



