492 SCOLOPACID/E. 



the air. It is called provincially " Shrieker," " Yarwhelp," 

 and *' Barker," but its note, though loud, is far from 

 inharmonious. Black-tailed Godwits commence laying their 

 eggs early in May, and the nest, which is composed 

 of dry grass and other vegetables, is concealed amongst 

 the coarse herbage of the swamps and low meadows. Hoy 

 mentions that, when disturbed, they are clamorous, flying 

 round and vociferating the cry of grutto, grutto, gnitto, by 

 which name the bird is known among the country people in 

 Holland. The eggs are four in number, of a light olive- 

 brown, blotched and spotted with darker brown, rather pear- 

 shaped, and averaging 2*2 by 1"5 in. The food of these 

 birds consists of insects and their larvae, worms, and almost 

 any other soft-bodied animals. 



This Godwit, in the winter plumage, has the beak black 

 for one-third of its length, the basal portion pale yellowish- 

 brown ; the irides hazel ; before and over the eye a white 

 patch ; the whole of the head and neck ash-brown ; the 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, back, and tertials, ash-brown, the 

 coverts and tertials with lighter-coloured edges ; primary 

 quill-feathers dusky-black, the shafts white, with some 

 white at the base of all beyond the second, forming a bar 

 across the wing ; basal third of the tail-feathers white, the 

 terminal two-thirds black, except the outer tail-feather on 

 each side, which have a larger proportion of white ; chin, 

 breast, and belly, light greyish-ash ; vent and under tail- 

 coverts white ; legs and toes dusky-brown ; the claws black. 

 The whole length of a female is seventeen inches ; of the 

 beak alone four inches. From the carpal joint to the end of 

 the first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, nine 

 inches ; length of the tarsus three inches ; of the naked part 

 above, one inch and three-quarters ;* weight about 13 oz. 



The male in summer has the beak black for half its 

 length from the point, the basal-half orange ; irides hazel ; 



* In an unusually large bird obtained near Taunton, in February, in the 

 collection of Mr. Cecil Smith, the bill measures 4-7, and the tarsus 3'5 ; the 

 wing, however, is only 8'5. In the Archangel Museum Messrs. Alston and 

 Harvie-Brown observed a specimen which measured — bill 4"87, tarsus 3'8, tibia 

 nearly 2-8, wing 9-8 (Ibis, 1873, p. 69). 



Il 



