366 GOD WIT 



said of it — " C'est vn Oyseau es delices des Fran^oys." Casaubon, 

 who Latinized its name "Z^ei ingenium" (Ephemerides, 1 9th September 

 1611), was told by the " ornithotrophseus" he visited at Wisbech that 

 in London it fetched twenty pence. Its fame as a delicacy is per- 

 petuated by many later writers, Ben Jonson among them, and 

 Pennant says that in his time (1766) it sold for half-a-crown or five 

 shillings. Under the name Godwit two distinct species of British 

 birds are included, but that which seems to have been especially 

 prized is known to modern ornithologists as the Black- tailed 

 Grodwit, the Scolopax limosa of Linnoeus, the Limosa belgica, segoce- 

 phala, or melanura of other authors, formerly called, from its loud 

 cry, a Yarwhelp,^ Shrieker, or Barker, in the districts it inhabited. 

 The practice of netting this bird in large numbers during the spring 

 and summer, coupled "with the gradual reclamation of the fens, to 

 which it resorted, has now rendered it but a visitor ; and it 

 probably ceased from breeding regularly in England in 1824 or 

 thereabouts, though under favourable conditions it may have occa- 

 sionally laid its eggs for some thirty years later or more (Stevenson, 

 B. Norf. ii. p. 250). This Godwit is a species of wide range, reach- 

 ing Iceland, where it is called Jardra&kd ( = earth-raker), in summer, 

 and occurring numerously, it is said, in India in winter. Its chief 

 breeding-quarters seem to extend from Holland eastwards to the 

 south of Russia. The second British species is that which is 

 known as the Bar-tailed Godwit, the Scolopax, lapponica of Linnaeus, 

 the L. lapjjonica or mfa of modern authors,^ and this seems to 

 have never been more than a bird of double passage in the United 

 Kingdom, arriving in large flocks on the south coast about the 

 12th of May (hence known as Godwit-day), and, after staying a 

 few days, proceeding to the north-eastward. It is known to breed 

 in Lapland, but its eggs are of great rarity. Towards autumn the 

 young visit our coasts, and a few of them remain, together with 

 some of the other species, in favourable situations, throughout the 

 winter. One of the local names by which the Bar-tailed Godmt is 

 known to the Norfolk gunners is Scamell, a word which, in the 

 mouth of Caliban {Tempest, act ii. scene 2), has been the cause of 

 much pei-plexity to Shakespearian critics. 



The Godwits belong to the group Limicolx, and are about as big 

 as a tame Pigeon, but possess long legs, and a long bill with a slight 

 upward turn. In the genus Limosct the female is larger and more 

 conspicuously coloured than the male, who is believed to take the 

 chief duty of incubation on himself. AVhile the winter plumage is 

 of a sober greyish brown, the breeding-dress is marked by a pre- 



^ This name seems to have survived in Whelp Moor, as part of the fen between 

 Ely and Brandon used to be called. 



- L. meyeri of some authors seems to be the male of tliis species in his in- 

 cubating plumage. 



