84 
TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS. 
white ; tail-coverts, white ; tail, also white, handsomely 
barred with dark olive ; wings, plain dusky, the secon- 
daries edged, and all the coverts edged and tipt with 
white ; shafts, black ; eye, also black ; legs and naked 
thighs, long and yellow ; outer toe, united to the middle 
one by a slight membrane ; claws, a horn colour. The 
female can scarcely be distinguished from the male. 
228 . TOTANUS MELANOLEUCUS , VIEILL. 
SCOLOPAX rOCIFEPUS, WILSON. TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. 
WILSON, PLATE LVIII. FIG. V. 
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 consists 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 marksman. Yet the cunning and experience of 
the latter are 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 
