364 SNIPES. 



like that of the snipes, nor having the upper mandible in the least 

 hooked and projecting over the under. It is not a snapping bill, 

 nor a boring bill, neither is it a scooping or a dabbling bill. It 

 is not very easy to find a single epithet descriptive of the function 

 that it performs, or rather of the manner in which it performs 

 that function. It is not shovelHng or scooping, for it does not 

 remove from its place the sludge and sediment of the water 

 among which it seeks its food ; and it docs not dabble and wash 

 the mud, as ducks do, till it finds the substance of which it is in 

 quest. " Poking " is the nearest epithet, but docs not express 

 the action exactly, as the bird " tries about," and selects its food 

 by the sense of touch, and not by sight. These birds are more 

 of a wading habit than snipes, as snipes are more of waders than 

 woodcocks ; yet the food is not found in the water, but in the 

 ooze ; and if that ooze is soft enough to be penetrated by the 

 bill, the fact of its being with or without a small stratum of water 

 over it is of little consequence. That food is chiefly mud worms, 

 mud insects, and mud larva: ; and the places which the birds 

 frequent are those in which these most abound. The banks of 

 the eddies of slow-running streams, or the accumulations of sludge 

 that are left bare in the estuaries and creeks upon the shores of 

 low and rich land, on the ebbing of the tide, and especially the 

 runs of mud from the richer grounds into the pools of fens, 

 are their favourite places of resort. They breed in the fens, at 

 a considerable distance inland if the ground is suitable, but they 

 descend nearer to the sea in winter. In their inland haunts they 

 hide themselves during the heat of the day among the long grass, 

 where they have their nests ; but when near the sea, their rcsting- 

 time varies with that at v/hich the tide leaves their feeding-places 

 in the best condition. Godwits run very fast, more rapidly than 

 snipes or tringas, and make their escape to a considerable dis- 

 tance on foot before they take wing ; when they do, they yelp 

 and clamour in a very loud and rather harsh and bleating strain. 



The type of this sub-family is — 



Tlic Red Godwit {Limosa ri(fa). These birds usually dwell in small 

 societies, frcqucntin,;^ the mud-banks of river-mouths, or inlets of the sea 

 abounding in oozy shores, where they readily meet with their usual food,— 

 worms, aquatic animals, and the smaller mollusca. Their flight is powerful 

 though not very rapid, and when disturbed and raised on the wing, they utter 

 a cry not unlike the bleat of a goat. In April the males have acquired their 

 nuptial plumage, after which period they entirely desert our shores, retiring to 

 more northern countries— Iceland, Lapland, and Sweden — to breed. 



In Holland and the level parts of France, which afford them a congenial 



