278 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



thousands, collected in the manner mentioned above. Four or five guns were 

 fired at once, and the slaughter was such that I was quite satisfied with the 

 number obtained, both for specimens and for food. For this reason we 

 refrained from firing at them again, although the temptation was at times 

 great, as they flew over and wheeled round us for awhile, until at length they 

 alighted at some distance and began to feed. 



The marbled godwit is a rare bird in Florida to-day; I saw only 

 one during the five months of my last winter on the west coast. It 

 was formerly abundant as a migrant on the Atlantic coast from New 

 England southward, where now it is merely a straggler. It is still 

 fairly common on the Pacific coast, where probably most of the 

 birds now go. Even in Minnesota, close to its present breeding 

 grounds, it has decreased enormously. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts 

 (1919) writes: 



When the writer, in company with Franklin Benner, went to Grant and 

 Traverse Counties in June, 1S79, to study the wild life of that region, the great 

 marbled godwit was so abundant, so constant and insistent in its attentions 

 to the traveler on the prairie, and so noisy that it became at times an actual 

 nuisance. They were continually hovering about the team, perfectly fearless 

 and nearly deafening us with their loud, harsh cries — " go-wit, go-wit." On 

 getting out of the wagon to search for their nests, the birds became fairly 

 frantic until we were fain to stop our ears to shut out the din. Now and then 

 the birds would all disappear and peace would ensue for a brief period, but 

 they bad only retired to muster their forces anew, for shortly a great company 

 would bear clown upon us, flying low over the prairie, and spread out in wide 

 array, all the birds silent, until, when almost upon us, they swerved suddenly 

 upward over our heads and broke out again in a wild, discordant clamor. Once I 

 counted 50 birds in one of these charging companies. This, to us, novel experi- 

 ence, went on from day to clay in various places and has left a vivid impression 

 that can never be effaced. Happenings of this sort have long since become 

 things of the past in Minnesota. The godwits gradually disappeared before con- 

 ditions associated with the advance of man into their domain until now it is 

 doubtful that more than an occasional pair remains to nest in some remote part 

 of the State. 



The godwits have always been favorites with me and in my early 

 daj's I had always longed to see them. The opportunity came at last 

 w T hen I visited North Dakota in 1901. We had been collecting for 

 several days in some extensive sloughs bordering a large lake in 

 Steele County, which we found exceedingly rich in bird life, when on 

 June 12 I first made the acquaintance of this magnificent wader. The 

 beautiful Wilson's phalaropes were flitting about among the tussocks, 

 and it was Avhile hunting for their nests that we noticed, among the 

 numerous noisy killdeers and western willets flying over us, a strange 

 hoarse note, strikingly different from either, as a large brown bird 

 flew past, which we recognized as a godwit. All doubts were soon 

 dispelled by collecting my first specimen of a species I had often 

 longed to see, and I could not help pausing to examine and admire 

 the beautiful markings of its richly colored wings. We saw only 



