236 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



than the end of the following month. According to the 

 late Rev. J. D. Banister (Mss.) the return flight com- 

 mences in March, but Mr. W. A. Durnford says {ZooL, 

 1876), that in 1876 he saw a flock of Godwits, probably 

 Bar-tailed, on February 19th, on Walney, and in the 

 same locality, in 1881, Mr. Hugh P. Hornby informs me 

 he noticed several small parties as late as the 4th of 

 June. Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson still considers it a common 

 autumn visitor to the Kibble estuary, but so long ago as 

 1838, the late Dr. Skaife, in the Mar/, of Xat. Hist, of 

 that year, wrote of it as only being thinly scattered 

 along the shore, and refers to the immense flocks he 

 used to meet with when shooting there. 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



LniosA BELGicA (J. F. Gmeliii) . 



The Black-tailed Godwit is not as common as the Bar- 

 tailed, but is a regular visitor in autumn, and Mr. T. 

 Jackson writes me that on the Lune he sees both species 

 there in small numbers, all having left, however, by the 

 end of October. Near St. Michael's-on-W^yre, Mr. Hugh 

 P. Hornby says they have twice shot specimens : one, a 

 male, on September 23, 1873, and the second (three 

 birds having been seen the previous day) on September 

 12, 1882. Mr. C. S. Gregson has only met with this 

 species once on the Formby shore. I do not find any 

 record of its occurrence on the spring migration. 



