GREATER YELLOW-LEGS 89 



April 2, 1859. As I go down the street just after 

 sunset, I hear many snipe to-night. This sound is an- 

 nually heard by the villagers, but always at this hour, 

 i. e. in the twilight, — a hovering sound high in the 

 air, — and they do not know what to refer it to. It is 

 very easily imitated by the breath. A sort of shudder- 

 ing with the breath. It reminds me of calmer nights. 

 Hardly one in a hundred hears it, and perhaps not 

 nearly so many know what creature makes it. Per- 

 haps no one dreamed of snipe an hour ago, but the 

 air seemed empty of such as they; but as soon as the 

 dusk begins, so that a bird's flight is concealed, you 

 hear this peculiar spirit-suggesting sound, now far, now 

 near, heard through and above the evening din of the 

 village. I did not hear one when I returned up the 

 street half an hour later. 



[See also under Woodcock, p. 84. J 



GREATER YELLOW-LEGS ; TELLTALE 



Oct. 25, 1853. P. M.— Sailed down river to the 

 pitch pine hill behind Abner Buttrick's, with a strong 

 northwest wind, and cold. 



Saw a telltale on Cheney's shore, close to the water's 

 edge. I am not quite sure whether it is the greater or 

 lesser, but am inclined to think that all I have seen 

 are the lesser. 1 It was all white below and dark above, 

 with a pure white tail prettily displayed in flying. It 

 kept raising its head with a jerk as if it had the St. 

 Vitus's dance. It would alight in the water and swim 



1 [The date and the note would indicate that the bird was probably 

 the greater yellow-legs, not the lesser.] 



