BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 131 



respect to the lines of its passage through Minnesota, failing 

 to put in an appearance on some for two or three seasons in 

 succession, in one or the other migration, and appearing by a 

 fair representation in others. 



Mr. Holzinger does not give them in the list of the Normal 

 School collection and Mr. Washburn makes no mention of them 

 in theRed river valley. On the undulating prairie lying be- 

 tween the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, near Fort Snelling.I 

 formerly found the Marbled Godwit without much uncertainty 

 in its autumnal migrations, rarely however in the vernal. In 

 what is now the northwestern section of the city where I reside 

 there are two or three shallow lakes, between and around 

 which are some rather sterile knolls. On several collecting 

 tramps I found a number of this species on them. At a little 

 distance, those on the highest looked to be much larger than 

 they really were, and were utterly unapproachable except by 

 strategy, as one of the number invariably remained on guard. 

 But when by any means one individual got within shot, and was 

 either killed or crippled, the others would fly within range in 

 their solicitude for the unfortunate one, when a second, usually 

 no doubt the mate, was most likely to share its fate. 



The first week in September is the golden time for finding 

 them, and they are then much sought for by sportsmen familiar 

 with them. The flesh is very delicious eating. Their stay is 

 too brief for any but the initiated to secure them and when 

 others obtain them it is by the accidence of their association 

 with flocks of more common species. From the uniform late- 

 ness of their arrival in spring, and the early date of their re- 

 appearance in fall, or rather late summer, I hoped to have 

 found their nests long ago, but although I learned indirectly of 

 others having done so in 1864, I had no personal knowledge of 

 them until in the autumn of 1872, when I found three eggs, and 

 what was said to be the male and female associated with them, 

 in the St. Paul Academy's collection. Coues' "Birds of the 

 Northwest" was published two years afterward, in which he 

 mentions seeing the same, so that it is probable that he saw 

 them before I had done so, and I quote briefly what he says. 

 "The only perfect set of eggs of the Godwit I have seen were 

 taken June 1, 1871, fifty miles northwest of Saint Paul, Minne- 

 sota; both parents were secured and deposited in the Saint 

 Paul Academy, where I examined them; so that the identifica- 

 tion is unquestionable. There are three eggs in this set, 

 measuring 2.30 by 1.60, 2.28 by 1.56 and 2.25 by 1.62. The 



