242 ZOOLOGY. 



brownish Mack; primary quills white at base, and tipped with brownish black; secondaries white, spotted with brownish 

 black; tail ashy white, the two middle feathers strongly tinged with ashy; others spotted with dark ashy brown. Bill dark 

 bluish brown, lighter at base; legs light blue. Younger. — Entire plumage spotted, and transversely banded with brownish 

 black. 



Total length about 15 inches; wing, 8^; tail, 3^; bill about 2^; tarsus about 2^ Inches. 



Hub. — Entire temperate regions of North America; Soath America. 



I obtained a specimen of the Willet at San Franci.sco, Cal., where they are quite common in 

 the markets during the autumn, winter, and spring. From tlieir abundance in California I 

 have no doubt that Dr. Townsend is correct in assigning this bird a phice in the Oregon fauna. 

 Unfortunatel}', I myself have never obtained a specimen north of San Francisco. — S. 



Probably rare on the coast of Washington Territor}", though sportsmen have told me they 

 had shot it. I never obtained a specimen. — C. 



GAMBETTA MELANOLEUCA, (Gm.) Bon. 



Tell Tale Tattler; Stone Suipe; Greater Yellow-Legs. 



Scolopax melanolemnis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 659. 



Gambetta mdanoleuca, Bon. Comptes Eendus, Sept. 1856. — Batkd & Cassln, Gen. Rep. Birds, 731. 



Scolopax vociferus, Wilson, Am. Orn. TII, 1813, 57; pl.lviii. 



Tolanus vociferus, AcD. Syn, 244. — In. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 316; pi. 345. 

 Sp. Ch. — Bill longer than the head, rather slender, curved towards the tip; wings rather long, first quill longest; tail 

 short; neck and legs long; toes moderate, margined and flattened underneath, connected at base by membranes, the larger 

 of which unites the outer and middle toe; hind toe small; claws short, blunt; grooves in both mandibles extending about 

 half their length. Entire upper parts cinereous of various shades, dark in many specimens in full plumage, generally light 

 with white lines on the head and neck and with spots and edgings of dull white on the other upper parts; -lower back 

 brownish black; rump and upper tail coverts white, generally with more or less imperfect transverse narrow bands of 

 brownish black; imder parts white, with longitudinal narrow stripes on the neck and transverse crescent lanceolate and 

 sagittate spots and stripes on the breast and sides; abdomen pure white; quills brownish black with a purplish lustre, shaft 

 of first primary white, secondaries and tertiaries tipped and with transverse bars and spots of ashy white; tail white, with 

 transverse narrow bands of brownish black, wider and darker on the two middle feathers; bill brownish black, lighter at 

 the base; legs yellow; iris brown; hill grayish black. 



Total length about 14 inches; extent, 234; ''^'Dgi "^h to 8; t^'b 'i to 3^; bill, 2\\ tarsus, 2j inches. 

 Hab. — Entire temperate regions of North America; Mexico. 



The great yelloto-leg tattler I found pretty generally distributed throughout the country — 

 obtaining specimens in the remote interior on the Bitter Root stream of the Rocky mountains, 

 and also on Puget Sound in the vicinity of the seacoast. This liird, in the last-named locality, 

 is rpiite abundant during the spring and autumn, where it is found both on fresh water margins 

 and also on the salt marshes and tide j^rairies at the mouths of the various rivers emptying into 

 the sound. It is there in common with the gray snipe, (if. griseus,) known to the Nisqually 

 Indians by the name of Ky-yo-e-yah, a word intended to represent the cry of this bird as it 

 strikes the Indian ear. The habit of these aborigines of naming birds and beasts after their 

 cries is quite common on the northwest coast. — S. 



The yellow-leg snipe is common near the coast in summer, and I tliink some remain during 

 the M'inter. — C. 



RHYACOPHILUS SOLITARIUS, (Wils.) Cassin. 



Solitai'y Sandpiper, 



Tn'u^rt so/i(aria, Wilson, Am. Ora. VII, 1813, 53; phlviii. 



Totanus solitarius. Add. Syn. 1939,242.— Ib. Birds Am. V, 1842, 309; pi. 313 



