THE ZoOLOGIST-—-SEPTEMBER, 1876. 5065 
are entirely changed ; and it then becomes possible to get near 
the most timid and suspicious of the family :— 
“Under ordinary circumstances willets are notoriously restless, wary, 
and noisy birds; but their nature is changed, or, at any rate, held in 
abeyance, during and for a short time after incubation. They cease their 
cries, grow less uneasy, become gentle, if still suspicious, and may generally 
be seen stalking quietly about the nest. When willets are found in that 
humour—absent-minded, as it were, absorbed in reflection upon their 
engrossing duties, and unlikely to observe anything not directly in front of 
their bill—it is pretty good evidence that they have a nest hard by. It is 
the same with avocets, and probably many other waders. During incubation 
the bird that is ‘off duty’ (both parents are said to take turns at this) 
almost always indulges in reverie, doubtless rose-tinted, and becomes in a 
corresponding degree oblivious to outward things. If then they are not set 
upon in a manner entirely too rude and boisterous, the inquiring ornithologist 
could desire no better opportunity than he will have to observe their every 
motion and attitude. But once let them become thoroughly alarmed by too 
open approach, particularly if the sitting bird be driven from her nest, and 
the scene quickly shifts; there is a great outcry, violent protest and tumult, 
where was quietude. Other pairs, nesting near by, join their cries till the 
confusion becomes general. But now, again, their actions are not those 
they would show at other times; for, instead of flying off with the instinct 
of self-preservation, to put distance between them and danger, they are 
held by some fascination to the spot, and hover around, wheeling about, 
flying in circles a little way to return again, with unremitting clamour. 
They may be only too easily destroyed under such circumstances, pro- 
vided the ornithologist can lay aside his scruples and steel himself against 
sympathy.” 
The correctness of the following amusing life-picture may be 
tested by any one who lives in a part of the country where the 
summer snipe, the common redshank, or the green sandpiper are 
to be met with. All these birds have the same fondness for 
bowing to themselves as the solitary tattler, whose “nods and 
becks” the Doctor has recorded. This, by the way, is an 
American species, of probably not infrequent occurrence in 
England, but easily to be confounded with the wood sandpiper, 
and hence overlooked. The chief distinction lies in the colour of 
the feathers above the rump, which are green in the solitary 
tattler, and white in the wood sandpiper. Writing of the former 
bird, the Doctor remarks :— 
