EAR-TAILED GODTVIT. 2G5 



For some time after its arrival it is not shy, but when 

 feeding allows a near approach. I have known six killed in 

 one week in September, two of them by a young friend. After 

 October they become scarcer and more shy ; but individuals 

 occur until April, when they disappear. Their flight is 

 moderately rapid, light, somewhat buoyant, and greatly re- 

 sembles 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 men- 

 tioned. 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. 



It has been alleged that the bill of the Limosae is not 

 recurved when the bird is alive, but bends presently after it 

 is killed. One day in September, 1840, observing a bird of 

 this species on the edge of the tide at high water, I walked 

 slowly toward it until exactly eleven paces distant, when, 

 after some hesitation, it flew away, but not until I very dis- 

 tinctly saw that the bill was recurved. All the specimens 

 examined by me soon after death had it equally bent up- 

 wards. When it begins to dry, however, it curves con- 

 siderably more than in the natural state, which is also the 

 case with the bills of the Tringee, although in the opposite 

 direction. 



As might be expected, it occurs in autumn along the 

 whole eastern coast of England, and extends to Devonshire 

 and Cornwall. Whether it migrates also along the western 

 coasts of Scotland and England cannot well be affirmed, 

 although Mr. Heysham has recorded the shooting of one 

 near Bowness in October. From its frequenting the shores 

 of the continent, and occurring in Germany, Switzerland, 

 and on the shores of the Caspian Sea, its course of migration 

 had been considered more to the eastward than that of the 

 Black-tailed Godwit ; but Mr. Thompson notes it as a regular 

 autumnal visitant in Ireland, where it occasionally remains 

 until spring. 



