70 TELL-TALE GODWIT. 
seem as if they were swimming. If just alighted after ever so short 
a flight, they hold their wings upright for a considerable time, as if 
doubtful of not having obtained good footing. Closing their wings, 
they then move nimbly about the pool, and are seen catching small 
fishes, insects, worms, or snails, which they do with rapidity and a 
considerable degree of grace, for their steps are light, and the ba- 
lancing or vibratory motion of their body, while their head is gently 
moved backwards and forwards, is very pleasing to the eye. 
I have often observed these birds on large logs floating on the 
Mississippi, and moving gently with the current, and this sometimes 
in company with the Snowy Heron, Ardea candidissima, or the Ame- 
rican Crow, Corvus Americanus. In such situations, they procure 
shrimps and the fry of fishes. In autumn, they are extremely prone 
to betake themselves to the margins of our most sequestered lakes in 
the interior of Louisiana and Kentucky, where the summer heat has 
left exposed great flats of soft sandy mud abounding with food suited 
to their appetite, and where they are much less likely to be disturbed 
than when on the marshes on the sea-shore, or on the margins of ri- 
vers. When they have been some time in the salt-marshes, and have 
eaten indiscriminately small shell-fish, worms, and fry, they acquire a 
disagreeable fishy taste, and being at the same time time less fat, are 
scarcely fit for the table. They are social birds, and frequently mingle 
with other waders, as well as with the smaller ducks, such as the Blue- 
winged and Green-winged Teals. In the salt-marshes they associate 
with Curlews, Willets, and other species, with which they live in 
peace, and on the watchfulness of which they depend quite as much as 
on their own. 
The flight of the Tell-tale Godwit, or “ Great Yellow-Shank,” as 
it is generally named in the Western Country, is swift, at times ele- 
vated, and, when necessary, sustained. They pass through the air with 
their necks and legs stretched to their full length, and roam over the 
places which they select several times before they alight, emitting 
their well-known and easily imitated whistling notes, should any sus- 
picious object be in sight, or if they are anxious to receive the answer 
of some of their own tribe that have already alighted. At such 
times, any person who can imitate their cries can easily check their 
flight, and in a few moments induce them to pass or to alight within 
shooting distance. This 1 have not unfrequently succeeded in doing, 
