The Wandering Tattler 



It is easy to picture a time when Willets were ten times more common 

 than they are at present; and if only men will content themselves with 

 honest beef and mutton, instead of hankering after strange and doubtful 

 dainties, we may live to see such a time again. 





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Taken in Santa Barbara 



A CAT-NAP 



Photo by the A ulhor 



No. 249 



Wandering Tattler 



A. O. U. No. 259. Heteroscelus incanus (Gmelin). 



Description. — Adult in summer: Above uniform brownish slate (chaetura drab); 

 a white superciliary, broken behind; shaft of first primary chiefly white; underparts 

 white as to ground, everywhere marked with color of back (chatura drab to hair-brown), 

 most lightly on throat and crissum, in heavy streaks on fore-neck, in wavy bars on 

 breast, sides, and flanks; axillaries and part of wing-lining pure drab. Bill greenish 

 dusky; feet yellowish dusky. Adult in winter: Similar, but nowhere barred save 

 on under tail-coverts and lining of wings; throat and belly white, the drab of remaining 

 underparts confluent as solid shading. Immature: Like adult in winter, but scapulars, 

 tertials, and upper tail-coverts, indistinctly spotted with white, and sides faintly mottled 

 with white. Length about 279.4 (11.00); wing 176.7 (6.95); tail 76.2 (3.00); bill 39.4 

 (1.55); tarsus 33 (1.30). 



Recognition Marks. — Killdeer size; uniform dark coloration distinctive; tew 

 tew notes; frequents rocky shores. 



Nest and Eggs unknown. 



1274 



