TELL-TALE 
GOD WIT, or 
SNIPE. 
335 
come of a pale dun color above, the plumage being shafted with dark 
brown, and the tail white, or nearly so. At this season they are ex- 
tremely fat, and esteemed excellent eating. Experienced gunners 
always select the lightest colored ones from a flock, as being uniformly 
the fattest. 
The female of this species is generally larger than the male. In the 
months of October and November they gradually disappear. 
Species VI. SCOLOPAX VOCIFERVS. 
TELL-TALE GODWIT, or SNIPE. 
[Plate LVIII. Fig. 5 ] 
Stone Snipe, Arct. Zool. p. 468, No. 37G. — Turt. Sijst. p. 396.* 
This species, and the preceding, are both well known to our Duck- 
gunners, along the sea-coast and marshes, by whom they are detested, 
and stigmatized with the names of the greater and lesser Tell-tale, for 
their faithful vigilance in alarming the Ducks with their loud and shrill 
whistle, on the first glimpse of the gunner's approach. Of the two the 
present species is by far the most watchful ; and its whistle, which con- 
sists of four notes rapidly repeated, is so loud, shrill and alarming, as 
instantly to arouse every Duck within its hearing, and thus disappoints 
the eager expectations of the shooter. Yet the cunning and experience 
of the latter, is frequently more than a match for all of them, and 
before the poor Tell-tale is aware, his warning voice is hushed for ever, 
and his dead body mingled with those of his associates. 
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 ofi" to the south. The nest, I have been informed, is 
built in a tuft of thick grass, generally 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, feed- 
ing on the sands on the lower part of Chatteaux Bay, continually 
nodding their heads ; and were called there Stone Curlews. f 
* Scolopax melanoleuca, Gmel. Si/st. i., p. 559, No. 32. — Lath. Ind. Om. p. 723, 
No. 28. — Spoiled Snipe, Lath. Syn. in., p. 149, var. A. Totanus melanoleucos, 
Ord, reprint, vn., p. 61. 
t Arct. Zool. p. 468. 
