8o LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



valley of the Yenisei eastwards, it is replaced by a 

 closely allied form. 



Lost as the Black-tailed Godwit is to British 

 ornithologists, it may still be observed during the 

 breeding season on the opposite coasts of the North 

 Sea, in the marshy meadows of Holland, and in the 

 fenlands of Jutland — proof, if proof were wanting, 

 that the birds did not forsake their English haunts, 

 but were ruthlessly driven from them. Drainage 

 may have destroyed many an English breeding- 

 place, but there are many others left where this 

 bird could still have nested in peace. In Europe 

 the spring migration of this Godwit begins as 

 early as February, and continues through the two 

 following months, those that cross the British 

 Islands appearing in them in April and May. 

 They are seen again on migration south in August 

 and September, and in some places the passage 

 lasts until October. This Godwit not only may be 

 seen on tidal mudflats, but on salt marshes and 

 the wet portions of moors. It is not exactly a shy 

 bird, if a wary one, and Dr. Sharpe tells us that he 

 has seen it standing complacently near the muddy 

 dykes as the train rushed along between Rotterdam 

 and Amsterdam ; whilst on the Lincolnshire mud- 

 flats we have repeatedly watched it running 



