At the age of a year the bird propagates, so that individuals in the white, mottled, or blue plumage, may be seen breeding together.
When only a few weeks old, the serrature of the claw of the middle toe is scarcely perceptible, exhibiting merely faint indications of points upon a very slight margin. This margin enlarges, and when the bird is completely fledged the serratures are perfectly formed.
In this bird, as in most other Herons, the crura of the lower mandible are thin, flexible, and elastic, the angle filled by an elastic membrane covered by the skin. The tongue is 1 inch long, sagittate at the base, tapering to a point. The roof of the mouth has a median prominent ridge, and two lateral lines; the palate is convex; the posterior aperture of the nares 10 lines in length. The pharynx may be dilated to 1 1/2 inch; the œsophagus, which is 12 inches long, is when dilated 10 lines in diameter at its upper part, and gradually contracts to 7 lines; at the curvature of the neck it lies directly behind, having passed down on the left side, along with the trachea. Its walls are extremely thin, contrasting in this respect with the œsophagus of the Great Northern Diver and other swimming piscivorous birds. The proventriculus is 1 inch long, its glandules cylindrical, and extremely slender. The stomach seems as if it merely formed a basal sac to the œsophagus, its muscles being extremely thin, its tendons circular and half an inch in diameter; cuticular lining soft. The intestine is long and very narrow, 5 feet 10 inches in length, 2 lines in diameter at the upper part, 1 1/2 near the rectum, which is 2 3/4 inches long, with a diameter of 4 1/2 lines, and terminates in a nipple-like cœcum, projecting 3 lines beyond the entrance of the small intestine, but having no appearance of the two lateral appendages usually called cœca. In this respect, the Blue Heron agrees with others of the same family. The cloaca is about an inch in length and breadth.
The trachea, when extended, is 8 3/4 inches long. The rings 170 in number, are osseous and circular, so that the organ preserves its cylindrical form under all circumstances. They are, like those of all Herons, of equal breadth on both sides, not broad on one side and narrow on the other, as has been represented. The contractor muscles are very slender, as are the sterno-tracheal; the former send down a slip on each side to the first bronchial ring. The diameter of the trachea is 2 lines at the upper part, 1 1/2 at the lower. The bronchi are short, wide, conical, of about 13 half rings.
The right lobe of the liver is 2 1/4 inches long, the left lobe 1 1/2; the heart 1 1/4 in length, 8 lines broad, of an oblong conical form. The stomach contained remains of insects and crustaceous animals, together with a few seeds.
TELL-TALE GODWIT.
Totanus melanoleucus, Vieill.
PLATE CCCVIII. Male and Female.
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, indeed, I have found it in almost every district, and at all seasons. It spends the winter along the shores of our estuaries, rivers, and ponds, and in the rice-fields, from Maryland to Mexico. It is abundant then in South Carolina, the Floridas, and along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, as far as Texas, where I found it in considerable numbers and paired, in the months of April and May, along with the Yellow-shank Snipe, Totanus flavipes. It is also met with in spring and autumn over the whole interior of the country, and I have found it quite abundant at those seasons along the entire length of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers, as well as on the Arkansas. They congregate in great numbers in the inland marshes of Florida, and along its rivers, during the winter. I found them near Eastport, in the State of Maine, on the 11th of May 1833; and on the coast of Labrador, on the 18th of June of the same year. In Newfoundland, on the 11th of August, the young were equal in size to their parents, and being extremely fat, tender, and juicy, afforded excellent eating. In general, however, these birds are thin and have a fishy taste.
In the State of Maine and the province of New Brunswick, the Tell-tale is known by the name of “Humility,” which, however, is an appellation that ill accords with its vociferous habits. The Creoles of New Orleans call it “Clou-clou;” and were these syllables rapidly enunciated from two to five times in succession, the sounds would have some resemblance to the usual notes of the species.