2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



China to Australia and Polynesia during tlie colder months. The reported 

 occurrence of the Black-tailed Godwit in Greenland is open to question, and in 

 North America its representative is L. hudsonica, which is smaller and has dark 

 brown instead of white axillaries." 



The late Mr. Henry Stevenson published in 1870 the following interesting 

 details respecting the former breeding of this species in Norfolk * : — " The Black- 

 tailed Godwit is another of those grallatorial birds which, Avithin the last half 

 century only, have ceased from breeding in our marshes. It were needless here to 

 repeat the ' twice told tale ' of its extinction, the same causes having effected the 

 same end in this as in many other cases, but I have thought it desirable to ascertain 

 as nearly as possible, from contemporary evidence, the date when this fine species 

 ceased to nest in Norfolk. 



"'Five species in particular,' wrote Mr. Lubbock in 1845, 'used formerly to 



swarm in our marshes, — the Godwit, the Ruff", the Lapwing, the Redshank, and 



the Black Tern. . . . Whilst the Redshank, in the breeding season, flew dashing 



around the head of the intruder on his territories, and endeavoured like the 



Lapwing to mislead the stranger from the nest, higher in the air, and flying in 



holder circles uttering a louder note, was the Black-tailed Godwit, called 



provincially ' the shrieker ' from its piercing cries. This bird is now almost 



extinct in this part of Norfolk ; it used to breed at Buckenham, Thyrne, Horsey, 



and one or two other places.' Mr. Lubbock evidently wrote guardedly as to their 



extinction, probably not having the opportunity at that time to ascertain the fact 



conclusively, but there is no question that prior to the date of his ' Fauna ' this 



species had become, what it is now in this county, an irregular migrant only. As 



far back as 1825, we have the following statement of Messrs. Sheppard and 



Whitear : ' Some of these birds used to breed in the marshes of Norfolk, and 



three years since we received the egg of this species from Yarmouth. But it is 



doubtful whether they are to be found at present in their former haunts.' This 



doubt I can now satisfactorily clear up, on the authority of Mr. Rising, of Horsey, 



who remembers a Godwit's nest in that neighbourhood in the summer of 1829, 



and thinks it quite possible that these birds may have bred there some few years 



later, but for the next ten years, being invariably engaged in London during 



the spring months, he had no means of satisfying himself on this point, 



although greatly interested in the subject. If we assume, then, that in yearly 



decreasing numbei's they still frequented certain favourite localities for a few 



seasons longer, their extinction may, I think, be said to have occurred somewhere 



• ' Birds of Norfolk,' vol. ii. pp. 248-1^50. 



