THE GODWITS. 315 



Range in Great Britain. — The Black-tailed Godwit is now only 

 a migrant to Great Britain, occurring more or less locally on all 

 our coasts, and appearing principally in our eastern and southern 

 counties. It still breeds in Holland, and used to do so in 

 England less than fifty years ago. The fens of Lincolnshire 

 and the Isle of Ely were its habitat, and one of the last 

 recorded nests was taken in Norfolk in 1847. 



Range outside the British Islands. — From Belgium and Holland 

 to Northern Germany, Poland, and Silesia, the present species 

 nests, as well as in Scandinavia up to 65° N. lat. It also 

 breeds in the Faeroes, and in the south-east of Iceland. It 

 ranges to Western Siberia as far as the valley of the Ob, and 

 migrates south in winter to North-western India. At the same 

 time of year it visits the Mediterranean, and also North-eastern 

 Africa. 



Habits. — The traveller by the train from Rotterdam to Am- 

 sterdam in May may often see Black-tailed Godwits standing 

 in pairs by the muddy dykes, taking no notice of the rushing 

 locomotive, and placidly standing on one leg by the side of 

 the water, or dozing, with the bill tucked under the shoulder- 

 feathers. Like that of the Bar-tailed Godwit, its nest is very 

 difficult to find, as related by Seebohm in his " History of 

 British Birds," where he tells of the toils of searching for the 

 nests in the marshes of Jutland. Mr. A. C. Chapman has 

 given a vivid account of the finding of the nests of the Black- 

 tailed Godwit in West Jutland by his brother, Mr. Abel Chap- 

 man, and himself. He writes: — "The marshes, as distinct 

 from the islets and salt-grass promontories, are areas of squashy 

 moss, grass, rush, and bog-plants, difficult, if not dangerous, 

 to explore ; but in most cases there are creeks of water which 

 intersect these marshes in various directions, and enable a 

 fiat-bottomed boat to be pushed about, so as to give access to 

 iheir interiors. Then it becomes necessary, in the search for 

 eggs, to traverse on foot their squashy surfaces, where, at every 

 step, the ground quakes for yards around in a most unpleasant 

 fashion, and the water oozes out of the moss well over one's 

 boot-tops. Such are the places most loved by the Black-tailed 

 Godwit, and, on approaching, the wailing cry will soon be 

 followed by the note of a bird high in air. That bird has 



