BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 169 



Bar-tailed Godwit. Limosa lapponka (Linn.). 



The two Godwits are birds of passage, one, the Bar-tailed 

 (Plate 71), abundant, the other, the Black-tailed, comparatively- 

 scarce ; yet the latter formerly bred in England and nests in 

 western Europe, whilst the former, though nesting only in 

 the far north in Europe and Asia, is sometimes present at all 

 seasons. Many of the birds which visit us winter in Africa, but 

 in m.ost years some go no further south than Britain. Plentiful 

 though the Godwit is, its visits are irregular ; under certain 

 circumstances, probably due to the wind being in the wrong 

 quarter, the migrating Bar-tails seem to miss our shores, or to 

 pass without stopping to rest. 



The Godwits are tall waders, distinguished, when at a 

 distance, from Curlews by their straight, actually uptilted, and 

 not downward curved bills. There are no other shore birds 

 like them, but it is not always easy to tell one from the other. 

 The tail marks, as implied by the names, are good characters, 

 if visible, but a bird on the shore makes no special effort to 

 advertise its salient points ; the tail of the present species is 

 not always barred, the actual tail feathers are grey in winter, 

 but the black tail is constant and usually conspicuous. If the 

 two species are together there is no difficulty, for the legs and, 

 usually, the bill of the Black-tailed Godwit are longer than in 

 the other ; it towers above its companions. Even in winter, 

 however, the upper tail-coverts of the Bar-tailed show bars, 

 and the young birds, which form the bulk of the autumn flocks, 

 have decided bars. The bills of Bar-tailed Godwits vary greatly, 

 as a rule from three to five inches. 



In East Anglia the Godwit seldom appears in numbers until 

 early May, but on the Lancashire seaboard, where it is far 

 more abundant than most accounts suggest, very large numbers 

 appear in April, and the regular winter flocks are by no means 

 small. In June there are few left, though a sprinkling of non- 



