TELL-TALE GOD WIT, OR SNIPE. 353 



This bird arrives on our coast early in April, breeds in the 

 marshes, and continues until November, about the middle of 

 which month it generally moves off to the south. The nest, 

 I have been informed, is built in a tuft of thick grass, gene- 

 rally on the borders of a bog or morass. The female, it is 

 said, lays four eggs of a dingy white, irregularly marked with 

 black. 



These birds appear to be unknown in Europe. They are 

 simply mentioned by Mr Pennant as having been observed in 

 autumn, feeding on the sands on the lower part of Cbatteaux 

 Bay, continually nodding their heads ; and were called there 

 stone curlews.* 



The tell-tale seldom flies in large flocks, at least during 

 summer. It delights in watery bogs and the muddy margins 

 of creeks and inlets ; is either seen searching about for food, 

 or standing in a watchful posture, alternately raising and 

 lowering the head, and, on the least appearance of danger, 

 utters its shrill whistle, and mounts on wing, generally accom- 

 panied by all the feathered tribes that are near. It occasionally 

 penetrates inland along the muddy shores of our large rivers, 

 seldom higher than tide-water, and then singly and solitary. 

 They sometimes rise to a great height in the air, and can be 

 distinctly heard when beyond the reach of the eye. In the 

 fall, when they are fat, their flesh is highly esteemed, and 

 many of them are brought to our markets. The colours and 

 markings of this bird are so like those of the preceding, that, 

 unless in point of size and the particular curvature of the bill, 

 the description of one might serve for both. 



The tell-tale is fourteen inches and a half long, and twenty- 

 five inches in extent ; the bill is two inches and a quarter long, 

 of a dark horn colour, and slightly bent upwards ; the space 

 round the eye, chin, and throat, pure white ; lower part of the 

 neck, pale ashy white, speckled with black ; general colour of 

 the upper parts, an ashy brown, thickly spotted with black and 

 dull white, each feather being bordered and spotted on the edge 



* Arctic Zoology, p. 468. 

 VOL. II. Z 



