90 PLOVER GROUP 



Bar-tailed Godwit -"Although so much more common on migration in 

 (Limosa ^^^^ British Islands than the black-tailed species, 



lapponica) ^^^^ bar-tailed godwit never bred either there or in 

 the Netherlands, being, in fact, a bird whose nesting- 

 range is exclusively northern, ranging eastward from the swamps and 

 marshes of Finland and Lapland across the Siberian tundra to the 

 Yenisei valley. In winter it visits Africa north of the equator and 

 south-western Asia, where its extreme easterly limits seem to be the 

 neighbourhood of Karachi, in Sind. In England the species is more 

 common during the autumn-migration than on the spring journe}-. 



H.\K-T.\II.i:iJ GODWIT SIMMKK 



but is local in its distribution, never apparently being verj- abundant 

 in the eastern and southern counties of England, although it has 

 been recorded in Northumberland in thousands during winter, while a 

 fowler in Morayshire is said to have accounted for no less than i i 5 

 head at a single shot, thus completely eclipsing the record of 2 1 

 whimbrel referred to above. On the west coast of Scotland this 

 godwit is reported to be rare, appearing occasionally only on lona 

 and Mull. To Ireland, and more especially on the east and west 

 coasts, it is, however, a regular visitor, and a few remain for the 

 summer. It is much more truly a coast-bird than the last species 

 (which favours mud-flats and estuaries rather than beaches) ; and, 

 like the latter, is in the habit of associating with other waders, especi- 

 ally knot and dunlin. From whimbrel it ma\' be distinguished at a 



