202 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



I have known two instances in whicli Jack Snipe 

 shot at and only slightly winged have been carried 

 home alive and kept for some time in captivity. 

 Of one of these I have given a detailed account 

 ("Birds of Middlesex," p. 193). 



BAR-TAILED GODWIT. Limosa lapponica (Linneeus). 

 PI. 23, figs. 3, 4 Length, 16 in. ; bill, 3-25 in. ; wing, 

 8"5 in. ; tarsus, 2 in. ; bare part of tibia, 0'75 in. 



A spring and autumn migrant, many remaining 

 throughout the winter, and much commoner than 

 the following species ; but although so numerous 

 at the period of its migration, no instance is known 

 of its having nested in the British Islands. It is 

 to be found during the breeding season on the 

 Siberian tundras from the Yenisei valley westward 

 to the marshes of Finland and Lapland. The Black- 

 tailed Godwit, on the contrary, although far more 

 rarely met with in England at the present time, used 

 formerly to breed in the fens and marshes of our 

 eastern counties. 



To give some idea of the occasional abundance 

 of the Bar-tailed Godwit, it may be noted that Mr. 

 T. M. Pike, as he himself informed me, has seen 

 thousands of these birds together in Morayshire, 

 and a professional gunner there once killed 115 at 

 one shot. Mr. Abel Chapman has observed that 

 " thousands of Bar-tailed Godwits haunt the coast 

 of Northumberland throughout the winter," an asser- 

 tion which Sir E,. Payne Gallwey has disputed, 

 suggesting that he must have mistaken Knots for 



