138 NOTES ON THE 
often do them good servicein sounding alarms. These Tattlers 
indulge on all occasions, a propensity for nodding lke Lord 
Burleigh, or the Chinese Mandarins in front of a tea shop, and 
when they see something they cannot quite make out, seem to 
reason with themselves, and finally come to 4 conclusion in this 
way; impressing themselves heavily with a sense of their own 
logic. They go through the bowing exercise with a gravity 
that may upset that of a disinterested spectator, and yet all 
through the performance so ludicrous in itself, contrive to pre- 
serve something of the passive sedateness that marks all their 
movements. This bobbing of the head and foreparts is the 
correspondent and counterpart of the still more curious actions 
of the Spotted Tattlers, or Tip-ups, as they are aptly called 
from this circumstance; a queer balancing of the body upon 
the legs, constituting an amusement of which these last named 
birds are extremely fond. As often as the Tip-up, or Teter- 
tail, as it is also called, stops in its pursuit of insects, the fore- 
part of the body is lowered a little, the head drawn in, the legs 
slightly bent, while the hinder parts and tail are alternately 
hoisted with a peculiar jerk, anddrawn down again with the 
regularity of clock-work. 
“The movement is more conspicuous in the upward than in 
the downward part of the performance; as if the tail were 
spring-hinged and in constant danger of flying up, needing 
constant presence of mind to keep it down. It is amusing to 
see an old male in the breeding season busy with this opera- 
tion. Upon some rock jutting out of the water he stands, 
swelling with amorous pride and self-complacency, puffing out 
his plumage till he looks twice as big as natural, facing about 
on his narrow pedestal, and bowing with his hindparts to all 
points of the compass. A sensitive and fastidious person 
might see something derisive, if not actually insulting in this, 
and feel as one may be presumed to have felt when the savages 
who attacked his ship in canoes showed the signs of contuma- 
ceous scorn that De Foe records. But it would not be worth 
while to feel offended, since this is only the entirely original 
and peculiar way the Tip-up has of conducting his courtships.” 
Much has been said of these peculiarities of the Tip-ups, and 
with much plausibility, but sad to relate, the ornithological ver- 
dict is still unproclaimed as to what all the wonderful bowings, 
and waggings, and puffings really are designed to express. 
Dr. Coues further says: ‘‘The solitary Tattlers, that we have 
lost sight of for the moment, are fond of standing motionless 
