316 
TELL-TALE TATLER. 
tudinal rug®, and of a dark red colour. Intestine 18 inches long, its greatest 
width in the duodenal part li twelfths, the smallest toward the rectum 1 
twelfth. Coeca 1 inch 2 twelfths long, 1 twelfth wide, la inches distant 
from the extremity. Cloaca obovate, 5 twelfths in width. Trachea 3 
inches 2 twelfths in length, from 21 twelfths to 1| twelfths in width ; rings 
130, extremely narrow, and cartilaginous. Bronchial half rings. Muscles 
as in the last species. 
TELL-TALE GODWIT.— TELL-TALE TATLEE. 
Totanus vociferus, Wils. 
PLATE CCCXLV. — Male and Female in “Winter. 
It is my opinion that they who have given so much importance to the cry 
of this bird, as to believe it to be mainly instrumental in ensuring the safety 
of other species, and in particular of Ducks, have called in the aid of their 
imagination to increase the interest of what requires no such illustration. A 
person unacquainted with this Godwit would believe, on reading its history 
as recorded in books, that the safety of these birds depends on the friendly 
warning of their long-billed and long-tongued neighbour. And yet it is at 
no season more noisy or more vigilant than the Kildeer Plover, nor ever half 
so much so as the Semipalmated species, the reiterated vociferations of which 
are so annoying. It is true that the Tell-tale is quite loquacious enough ; 
nay, you, reader, and I, may admit that it is a cunning and watchful bird, 
ever willing to admonish you or me, or any other person whom it may 
observe advancing towards it with no good intent, that it has all along 
watched us. But then, when one has observed the habits of this bird for a 
considerable time, in different situations, and when no other feathered 
creatures are in sight, he will be convinced that the Tell-tale merely intends 
by its cries to preserve itself, and not generously to warn others of their 
danger. So you may safely banish from your mind the apprehension, which 
the reading of books may have caused, that duck -shooting in the marshes 
of our Middle Districts, is as hopeless a pursuit as “ a wild goose chase.” 
The Tell-tale Godwit has a great range in the United States, where, iu- 
