GODWITS, SANDPIPERS, AND PLOVERS 399 



20th, 1897). Godwits are there known as "preens," 

 their local name in Northumberland being "speethes." 

 My own records fall far short of this, namely, forty 

 in two shots — seventeen and twenty-three; both made 

 on flood-tide at daybreak, during very severe frost. 



On January 15th, 1881, one of the most Arctic days 

 of our epoch (temperature 7 below zero), my brother 



H killed twelve godwits at a shot, when so deceptive 



was the frost-haze that both he and his puntsman had 

 mistaken the wall of birds before them for geese! 



H 's bag that day was prettily varied ; besides the 



godwits, it included a hooper, 18 lbs., four brent geese, 

 three mallards, and a scaup-drake. 



Following is the evidence of the oldest coast-fowler of 

 my acquaintance, written down verbatim, and on which 

 I place the more reliance as I had previously, during a 

 dozen years, taken similar notes from his lips. Owing, 

 moreover, to his summer-occupation being shellfish- 

 gathering and "long-lining" in the shallows for flounders 

 and such-like, my old friend would be more likely to 

 have observed the red godwits in May (should any 

 ever pass along this coast) than other fowlers who, at 

 that season, are busy with the deep-sea fishing. He 

 said : — " I am seventy-four years of age, and since 

 I can mind, the ' speethes ' have come in tar'ble quan- 

 tities. They stay here all the winter, but there's 

 always most in the hardest weather. Whiles I've seen 

 into thousands in one flock. Happening birds stay all 

 summer, and in August some are red : but these few red 

 birds come along with the young. I have never seen red 

 ones among the happening speethes that stop here 

 through the summer : but I can mind seeing red speethes 

 whiles in May." 



