BLACK-TAILED GODWIT 87 



from the curlew by the pale brown streak along the middle of the 

 crown of the head ; in other respects it is distinguishable chiefly by 

 the generally darker tone of the plumage. The winter-dress differs 

 from the breeding-plumage only in that the spots and bars of the 

 under surface are less distinct. Immature birds differ from the adults 

 more than in the curlew, being much more mottled above, and ha\-ing 

 the feathers spotted with reddish buff, while the lower part of the back 

 is mottled with spots of dusky brown. The chick closely resembles 

 that of the curlew. 



The general habits of the whimbrel are so similar to those of the 

 curlew that they need not be noticed in detail, although it may be 

 mentioned that the breeding-haunts of this bird are on moors nearer 

 the sea. Titerel is the name applied to the whimbrel on the south 

 coast, from its peculiar quivering cry. As its flesh is compared to 

 that of the curlew, the bird is even more sought after than the latter, 

 which it equals in shyness. The resources and ingenuity of the fowler 

 are, however, more than a match for the wariest bird that ever flew, 

 and there is a record of twenty-one whimbrel having been killed in 

 Pagham by a single discharge from a double-shotted gun. The nest 

 and eggs, which are ready for brooding by the end of May, are very 

 similar to those of the curlew ; the eggs themselves being smaller than 

 those of the latter, with a long diameter of from 2.05 to 2.45 inches. 

 The weight of a whimbrel is about i lb., against from i lb. 1 2 oz. 

 to 2 lbs. 8 oz. in the curlew. Both species have the same powerful 

 and dashing flight, which is so forcible that a curlew has been known 

 to smash the plate-glass of a lighthouse lantern. 



Of the Eskimo curlew {Nuinenius borealis), which is a native of 

 Greenland and America, only seven examples were recorded from 

 the United Kingdom during the whole of the nineteenth century, so 

 that this species has not a vestige of a claim to rank as a British bird. 



Black-tailed '^^^ black-tailed godwit, the Liiiwsa tvgocephala of 



Godwit (Limosa "^^"7 ornithological works, the Scolopax liuiosa of 



belffiea). Linnaeus, and hence the Limosa limosa of the 



modern school of nomenclature, is one of two 



British representatives of a genus with five species and a nearly 



cosmopolitan distribution. From the curlews and whimbrels the 



godwits differ by the straight beak, which has, however, a slightly 



upward inclination at the tip, where it is not expanded, and of which 



the length exceeds that of the tail. The black-tailed species, which 



formerly bred in the Lincolnshire fens, the Isle of Ely, and Norfolk, 



