MARBLED GOD WIT 279 



four of these birds that day, but on the following day they became 

 more abundant. There were about 20 of them flying about over the 

 meadows, showing considerable concern at our presence, constantly 

 uttering their peculiar cries, and showing so little regard for their 

 own safety that we were led to infer that they were breeding or in- 

 tending to breed in that vicinity. We spent some time looking for 

 their nests, bin as we knew practically nothing about their nesting 

 habits at that time, we were not successful in locating any nests. 



Spring. — I can not find that the marbled godwit was ever common 

 on the Atlantic coast north of Florida in the spring. It still migrates 

 northward along the Pacific coast, mainly in April ; D. E. Brown has 

 seen it at Gray's Harbor, Washington, as early as April 9. The 

 main migration route seems to be up the Mississippi Valley, mainly 

 in April; it has been recorded in southern Saskatchewan as early as 

 April 16. 



Nesting. — In southwestern Saskatchewan, in 1905 and 1906, I be- 

 came better acquainted with the marbled godwit on its breeding 

 grounds. Along the lower courses of the streams, near the lakes, but 

 sometimes extending for a mile or more back from the lake, are 

 usually found broad, flat, alluvial plains, low enough to be flooded 

 during periods of high water. These plains are more or less moist 

 at all times, are exceedingly level, and are covered with short, thick 

 grass only a few inches high. Such spots are the chosen breeding 

 grounds of the marbled godAvit, and, so far as our experience goes, the 

 nests of this species are invariably placed on these grassy plains or 

 meadows. 



The godwit makes no attempt at concealment, the eggs being depos- 

 ited in plain sight in a slight hollow in the short grass. We found, in 

 all, four nests of this species with eggs, had two sets of eggs brought to 

 us by ranchmen, and found two broods of young. The first nest was 

 discovered on May 29, 1905. We had been hunting the shores of a 

 large alkaline lake, where a colony of avocets were breeding on the 

 mud flats near the outlet of a deep, sluggish stream, and it was while 

 following along the banks of this stream, as it wound its devious 

 course down through a series of broad, flat meadows, that I flushed 

 a godwit out of the short grass only a few yards from the stream and 

 about 100 yards from the lake. On investigation I found that she 

 had flown from her nest, merely a slight hollow in the grass lined 

 with dry grass, which had, apparently, been simply trodden down 

 where it grew, without the addition of any new material brought in 

 by the birds. Only two eggs had been laid, so we marked the spot 

 for future reference and retired. On June 5 this nest was photo- 

 graphed, and the four eggs which it then contained were collected. 



While driving across a low, wet meadow, toward a reedy lake, on 

 June 8, 1905, and when about 200 yards from the lake, w T e were sur- 



