WA | : ; 7 ’ as ae .
i MAN hort time on the broads and inland waters. Unlike the Black-tailed Godwit, which makes, or rather did
HII Wd a shor :
Hi | 1] oye rEOCe ir ' 5 c y 1

| WE make, breeding-places of those localities, the present bird passes them by and proceeds to the higher

| } ’ 7 oD * . 2 ; aU ° nes ey ayaee
| latitudes of Lapland, Siberia, and Russia, in which a few solitary nests have been found ; these localities,
‘ é , ee : :

merely the outskirts of ifs summer quarters. To justify this assertion, and to show
: Bin Ger ; have been entere ay state that I h i

| a that the outskirts only of their breeding-grounds have been entered on, l oy sialic tl ao ave at this moment
i Wi before me the sale-list of the duplicate eggs from Mr. Wolley’s collection, in which it is recorded that four
) egg of this bird, and five pounds for another,—prices which must surely be

Wh i however, are, I am sure,

pounds were given for one

considered enormous, and which clearly indicate that the most persevering oologist has not yet visited the

bird’s true breeding-quarters.

The Bar-tailed Godwit has two distinct lines of migration—a western one through Europe to Africa, and
HII ni an eastern from China, through the Philippines, and across the line to Australia,—the great peninsula of
HTT AH | | India, and probably Burmah, forming a kind of neutral ground wherein it is seldom seen—so rarely, indeed,
. Se that Mr. Jerdon does not include it in his ‘ Birds of India,’ although Mr. Blyth says that, ‘as a species
HI | occurring rarely in the Himalaya, it must be added to the Indian list.” ‘The immense range of the Himalaya
| Mountains, as we all know, are backed by almost interminable deserts of bigh land, forming a barrier over
Wh which either the Godwit or any other southern migrant would seldom attempt to pass.

« Bggs said to be those of the Bar-tailed Godwit,” says Mr. Hewitson, ‘‘ were brought from the North
by the Rev. J. B. Tristram and also by Mr. Wolley, and with evidence sufficient to justify me in figuring
| them. ‘The Bar-tailed Godwit was seen close to the eggs ; the Black-tailed Godwit was never seen at all.”
| | Mr. Tristram, referring to the Bar-tailed Godwit, says :—‘ I found the bird in Finmark, and shot several
nN i} specimens in breeding-plumage without any trace whatever of the black tail; I got the nest, and shot
| the bird, a female, the same morning, close to the spot, but I did not flush her off the nest. Mr.
Wolley’s eggs corresponded so exactly with mine that we could not distinguish them; but they were at
once to be recognized among twenty eggs of the common Godwit. I have no moral doubt whatever
} on the subject, though my evidence does not amount to absolute demonstration.’ Mr. Wolley says this

species breeds in marshes, chiefly in the neighbourhood of mountains, and that it gets up so warily from

.
|
.
AN its nest that it is difficult to find it. The eggs figured are from Rowa, near Kittila, in Finland ; I cannot,
| MTA however, with Mr. Tristram, see anything about them to distinguish them from eggs of the other species ;
HI WA their close resemblance was to be expected.

] | | «“ Dr. Middendorff, who met with this species breeding in numbers on the river Taimyr, in Lapland, says
| Waa that it was not easy to find the eggs, as the birds would leave their nests with loud cries when he was at a
TH great distance from them. The eggs are found at the end of June, two or three in a nest.’—Coll. Ill.
Kegs of Brit. Birds, vol. i.

That the Bar-tailed Godwit breeds in the neighbourhood of Quickiock, in Lapland,” remarks Mr.
Wheelwright, “is pretty certain, although I never found the nest ; but I fancy that although both the Godwits
| | | may breed here and there, in Lapland they principally do so more to the east. Both species are summer
| visitants around Vardol, in Finland. Sommerfelt, however, has never known the egg of the Bar-tailed to be

taken there, although it breeds near Enara.”

| Speaking of the flight of the Bar-tailed Godwits, MacGillivray says it is ‘ moderately rapid, light,
ii | | somewhat buoyant, and greatly resembles that of the Curlew, and especially the Whimbrel. ‘They emit a
| | | loud shrill whistle, and on rising utter a lower modulated sound somewhat like that of the bird just
mentioned. Walking for the most part sedately, but sometimes running, they tap and probe the mud and
sands in search of worms and other small animals, frequently mingling with Sandpipers and Ring-Plovers,

along with which they often repose on the sands and neighbouring pastures at high water.”
| The number of Godwits that appear in different years varies greatly—but few in some, and many in others ;

i] generally speaking, too, the numbers that are seen in spring are much less than in autumn.

The sexes, like those of the allied species, differ very considerably in size, the female being by far the
largest of the two.

 

 

 

Phe Plate represents the male in his spring dress, and the female in winter, of the size of life.