154 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



Matliew states that the Bar- tailed Godwit, " Has 

 been this season unusually plentiful, and great 

 numbers of them have been shot : after the severe 

 gales of the 26th and 27th September, they were 

 driven into the river in large flocks, and were 

 easily approached : they have singular tactics as 

 one walks towards them. While they feed, they 

 are generally scattered over the oo^^e in a long, 

 irregular line ; as one approaches them, the birds 

 on the flank sides of the flock take wing, wheel 

 once or twice over the others, uttering all the while 

 their peculiar cry, and finally settle closer together 

 among the rest ; this manoeuvre is once or twice 

 repeated as one draws nearer to them, and each 

 time they rise and settle, they form themselves into 

 a thicker body, and if they remain on the ground 

 until one arrives within a reasonable distance for a 

 shot, a great number can always be laid low by a 

 single discharge" (Zool. 1858. p. 5348). Mr. 

 Murray Mathew adds on a later occasion, " Among 

 some Bar-tailed Godwits shot on the sand flats of 

 the Taw on September 13th was one which was 

 already in nearly complete winter dress. It was in 

 company with others, which were still exhibiting 

 some of the red livery of summer " (Zool. 1877. p. 

 448). Mr. Gatcombe writes that this Godwit, 

 " Seldom remains with us during the winter, but 

 one was shot near Plymouth on January 28th, 

 (1877). Mr. G. F. Mathew shot another bird in 

 full winter, on the mud-flats opposite Dittisham, of 



