TELL-TALE TATLER. 
819 
vicinity. I therefore conclude that its cries are then more intended to 
draw you from the spot where its nest is concealed, than for any other 
purpose, as on such occasions the bird either moves off on foot, or flies 
away and alights at a short distance from the place where its treasure lies. 
When in Labrador, I found these birds breeding, two or three pairs 
together, in the delightful quiet valleys bounded by rugged hills of con- 
siderable height, and watered by limpid brooks. These valleys exhibit, in 
June and July, the richest verdure, luxuriant grasses of various species 
growing here and there in separate beds many yards in extent, while the 
intervening spaces, which are comparatively bare, are of that boggy nature 
so congenial to the habits of these species. In one of those pleasing retreats 
my son found a pair of Tell-tales, in the month of June, both of which were 
procured. The female was found to contain a full-formed egg, and some 
more of the size of peas. The eggs are four, pyriform, 2i inches long, l 4 ,* 
in their greatest breadth, pale greenish-yellow, marked with blotches of 
umber and pale purplish-grey. 
The plumage of this bird has a very different appearance in autumn and 
winter from that which it presents at the approach of the breeding season. 
This has led some students of Nature in the United States to suppose that 
there exist two nearly allied species ; but this, I am confident, is not the 
case. The female is larger than the male, but only in a slight degree. 
Dr. Richardson has found this species on the Saskatchewan and Mr. 
Townsend on the Columbia river. 
Tell-tale Godwit, or Snipe, Scolopax vociferus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 57. 
Totanus melanoleucus, Bonap. Syn., p. 324. 
Totanus vocifeiius, Tell-tale, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 389. 
Tell-tale or Greater Yellowshanks, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 148. 
Tell-tale Godwit, Totanus melanoleucus, And. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 68. 
Male, 14, 241. Female, 134, 25§. 
Abundant during autumn, winter, and spring, from Texas along the 
Atlantic, and throughout the interior to Labrador. Few breed in the 
Jerseys ; most from Labrador northward. 
Adult Male. 
Bill much longer than the head, very slender, sub-cylindrical, straight, 
flexible, compressed at the base, the point rather depressed and obtuse. 
Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge convex, broader at 
the base beyond the nostrils and blended with the sides, which are convex, 
the edges thick, with a groove running their whole length, the tip slightly 
deflected. Lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the dorsal 
line straight, the sides convex, with a slight groove in their basal half, the 
