( 68 ) 
TELL-TALE GODWIT. 
TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS, VIEILL. 
PLATE CCCVIII. Mate ann FEemate. 
Ir is my opinion that they who have given so much importance to 
the cry of this bird, as to believe it to be mainly instrumental in en- 
suring the safety of other species, and in particular of Ducks, have 
called in the aid of their imagination to increase the interest of what 
requires no such illustration. A person unacquainted with this God- 
wit would believe, on reading its history as recorded in books, that 
the safety of these birds depends on the friendly warning of their long- 
billed and long-tongued neighbour. And yet it is at no season more 
noisy or more vigilant than the Kildeer Plover, nor ever half so much 
so as the Semipalmated species, the reiterated vociferations of which 
are so annoying. It is true that the Tell-tale is quite loquacious 
enough; nay, you, Reader, and I, may admit that it is a cunning and 
watchful bird, ever willing to admonish you or me, or any other per- 
son whom it may observe advancing towards it with no good intent, 
that it has all along watched us. But then, when one has observed 
the habits of this bird for a considerable time, in different situations, 
and when no other feathered creatures are in sight, he will be con- 
vinced that the Tell-tale merely intends by its cries to preserve itself, 
and not generously to warn others of their danger. So you may safely 
banish from your mind the apprehension, which the reading of books 
may have caused, that duck-shooting in the marshes of our Middle Dis- 
tricts, is as hopeless a pursuit as “ a wild goose chase.” 
The Tell-tale Godwit has a great range in the United States, 
where, indeed, I have found it in almost every district, and at all sea- 
sons. It spends the winter along the shores of our estuaries, rivers, 
and ponds, and in the rice-fields, from Maryland to Mexico. It is 
abundant then in South Carolina, the Floridas, and along the shores 
of the Gulf of Mexico, as far as Texas, where I found it in consider- 
able numbers and paired, in the months of April and May, along with 
the Yellow-shank Snipe, Totanus flavipes. It is also met with in 
spring and autumn over the whole interior of the country, and I have 
Se 
