MAEBLED GODWIT 399 



first for a bonier of some kind of herbage. Thousands there must have been; 

 and when they rose at my approach, they made something like a cdoud; gray 

 birds and brown birds so contrasted in color as to be discriminated beyond 

 risk of error, even when too far away for the staring white wing-patches of 

 the willets to be longer discernible. 



As a flock there was no getting near them; I proved the fact to my dis- 

 satisfaction more than once; but sitting quietly on the same bay shore I have 

 repeatedly known a single godwit or willet to feed carelessly past me within 

 the distance of a rod or two. 



Usually taking the precaution to forage at some distance from 

 human bc;_iiig.s and their habitations the Godwits probe in the mud 

 exposed by a receding tide. Often they will thus probe in the mud 

 when it is still covered by a few inches of water, their long bills 

 and legs making this easily possible. If frightened they take wing and 

 fly with rather slow and short wing beats, the long bill, neck and legs 

 giving the body an extremely attenuated appearance, and thus dis- 

 tinguishing the Godwit fi-om the Curlews both of which appear 

 chunkier. In flight, as when feeding, they are often seen in the com- 

 pany of other large shore birds such as the Willet and Curlews, and 

 are at times accompanied by such smaller species as the Long-billed 

 Dowitcher. Beck (MS) mentions seeing a Godwit at Los Banos in 

 company with some Black-necked Stilts. 



Mrs. Bailey (lf)16&, pp. 101-102) says of the Marbled Godwits 

 seen on the beaches of southern California : 



Tt was amusing to watch the birds feed. As a wave rolled up, combed 

 over and broke, the white foam would chase them in, and ... if it came on 

 too fast, they w'ould pick themselves up, . . . and scoot in. . . . But the 

 instant the water began to recede they would right about face and trot back 

 with it. . . . As they went their long bills — in the low afternoon sun strikingly 

 coral re<l except for the black tip — were shoved ahead of them, feeling along 

 through the wet sand . . .; and if anything good was discovered deeper [they] 

 . . . would stop to really probe, sometimes plunging the bill in up to the 

 hilt, on rare occasions when the tidbit proved out of reach, actually crowding 

 their heads down into the sand. . . . 



One of the long-legged birds would sometimes stop its work and lift up a 

 foot to scratch its ear, and one that I saw feeding on the edge of a wave 

 suddenly dropped and went through the motions of sousing itself. . . . While 

 the Godwits were hunting absorbedly, sometimes the white foam of the next 

 wave wouhl flow in over their feet and encircle them, and at other times they 

 would wait until the spray of a breaker was almost on them and have to 

 scurry for it with open wings. When the tide was so low that the waves broke 

 far out on the gently sloping shore, the birds hunted in a more leisurely 

 manner. They often brought up round balls, presumably small crabs or 

 crustaceans, so big that they had to gulp them down, and when tempting 

 morsels were seen in their bills neighborly Gulls often gave chase. . . . 



When the big brown birds flew they suggested round-shouldered Ibises 

 except that their bills were not curved. In flight they often made a close 

 flock calling, queep, queep, queep, queep, queep. . . . They soared down hand- 



