HUDSON-IAN GODWIT 301 



for two days. On the 26th a northeast wind set in, and it blew from the east 

 or northeast for six days. On the 29th seven godwits were killed. During the 

 seven years for which the record was kept godwits were taken only singly or 

 in pairs, with the above exception, and the record shows 42 killed all told. 

 Twenty-four were taken during east, north, or northeast winds; eight in north- 

 west winds ; six in southwest winds ; two in west winds ; and only one in a 

 south wind. 



Mr. S. Prescott Fay (1911) reports an unusually heavy flight at 

 Cape Cod from early in August until October 22, 1910, during which 

 25 birds were shot on 17 different dates. He saw a flock of 10 on 

 August 15, but says : 



In most cases they were lone birds and, contrary to their habits, were tame 

 and decoyed readily. However, on September 5, during a heavy easterly storm 

 with a downpour of rain, a flock of 30 to 35 birds went over our stand at 

 Chatham. Instead of alighting, as we supposed they would do, for they 

 appeared very much exhausted, they continued their slow flight and disappeared, 

 going due south in the heaviest part of the storm. However, a man a short 

 way below us shot three of these birds as we watched them go over him high 

 up, and later we found some one else above us had shot one from the same 

 flock only a minute or two earlier. One of these men estimated that the flock 

 contained over 40 birds, so my figures may be too low or else, after he fired, the 

 birds may have separated so that we might have seen only part of the original 

 flock. 



Winter. — The winter home of the Hudsonian godwit is in extreme 

 southern South America, from Argentina and Chile south to the 

 Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands. 



A. H. Holland (1892) says that, in Argentina, it "appears in 

 flocks late in the winter after heavy rains from July to August. 

 They were met with both in summer and winter plumage." Ernest 

 Gibson (1920) reported it as formerly " very abundant, in numerous 

 flocks, some of apparently over 1,000," in the Province of Buenos 

 Aires. He says that — 



On more than one of these occasions several birds have dropped to my gun. 

 The flock would then again and again sweep round and hover over the indi- 

 viduals in the water, uttering loud cries of distress, quite regardless of my 

 presence in the open and the renewed gunfire. Though the godwit is such an 

 excellent table bird, I found myself unable to continue the slaughter under 

 these circumstances. I might select my birds, but so closely were they packed 

 together that the shots went practically " into the brown," and caused 

 innumerable cripples. 



Conditions have changed since then, for Doctor Wetmore (192G) 



writes: 



Save for a record to be mentioned later, the Hudsonian godwit was first 

 recorded on November 13, 1920. when four, in winter plumage, were found 

 with small sandpipers on the tidal Hats near the mouth of the Rio Ajo, below 

 Lavalle, Buenos Aires. Two more were seen here on November 15. The 

 species was not noted again until March 3, 1921, when two were seen along 



