398 



BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



to our islands — that is to say, it is not, as a rule, found 

 therein in winter. Yet this general rule does not apply 

 to the north-east coast ; for here the common godwit 

 is one of our abundant winter wildfowl and is found, 

 thousands strong, from August up to March, be that 

 season mild or severe. It is, in fact, during the hardest 

 weather and most protracted frosts of mid-winter that 

 godwits are most numerous. 



Redshanks— On the Scap Point. 



These winter godwits were well known both to 

 Hancock and Adamson, as evidenced in their writings ; 

 while in the Humber, they were recorded by the late John 

 Cordeaux as occasionally abundant in January. In Scot- 

 land they are described as widely distributed in winter 

 (Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland) ; while in the 

 Dornoch firth they occur in very large flocks at that 

 season. Southward, in Essex, as many as fifty at one 

 shot are reported to have been gathered {Field, February 



