SPECIES 6. SCOLOPAX VOCIFERUS. 
TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. 
[Plate LVIIL— Fig. 5.] 
Stone Snipe, Jlrct. Zool.p. 468, Xo. 376. — Turt. Syst.p. 396. — 
Peale’s Museum, JVb. 3940.* 
This species, and the preceding, are both well known to our 
Duck-gunners, along the seacoast and marshes, by whom they 
are detested, and stigmatized with the names of the greater and 
lesser Tell-tale, iov 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 consists of four 
notes rapidly repeated, is so loud, shrill and alarming, as in- 
stantly to arouse every Duck within its hearing, and thus dis- 
appoints 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 off 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, feeding on the sands on the lower part of Chatteaux 
* Scolopax melanoleuca, Gmel. Syst. J,p. 659, JVo. 32. — Lath. Jnd. Orn. p. 723, 
JV'o. 28. — Spoiled Snipe, Lath. Syn. in,p- 149, var. A. Totanus melanoleucos, 
Ord, reprint, vii, p. 61. 
