BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. , 6 



between the years 1829 and 1835. It seems probable, however, that during the 

 next twenty years a pair or two occasionally returned to their old haunts in the 

 spring, though only to be robbed of their eggs, or shot down from their rarity, as 

 I have heard of such occurrences from two or three different sources. Mr. Gurney 

 remembers, some thirty years ago, being informed that a pair- or so of Black-tailed 

 Godwits still resorted at times to Sir William Beauchamp Proctor's marshes, near 

 Buckenham Ferry. This species, also, as Mr. Gurney remarks, was formerly an 

 abundant breeder in Holland, but, like the Purple Heron, Spoonbill, and Little 

 Bittern, has been so destroyed there of late years, that it has become comparatively 

 rare ; and this fact would also in some degree account for its scarcity on the East 

 coast of England. 



" In the Catalogue of Mr. E. S. Preston's collection of eggs, which was sold 

 at Stevens', 23rd March, 1858, ' Lot 95 ' consisted of ' three Black-tailed Godwits, 

 Reedham, Norfolk, 1857.' Two of these specimens are now in Mr. A. Newton's 

 collection, who was assured by Mr. Preston that the above description of the eggs 

 was correct, and that they had been taken in Norfolk. 



" Mr. A. Newton has also an egg of this bird, given to him by Mr. O. 

 Salvin, who obtained it from a friend of his, Mr. J. King, late of Trinity Hall, 

 Cambridge. This example was bought by Mr. King, in 1847, in the Cambridge 

 market, of a countryman, who had also a young Short-eared Owl alive — and there 

 can be little doubt that both bird and egg had been taken in this country." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser writes * : — " Respecting the nidification of this Godwit, 

 we translate the following notes contained in a letter received from our friend 

 Dr. L. Taczanowski, of Warsaw : — ' In Poland large numbers breed in two 

 marshy localities on the eastern part of the Vistula, in the Government of Lublin, 

 on the vast marshes between the rivers Wiperz and Bug, and on the marshes by 

 the canal of Augustow. It also breeds in some parts of the Government of Plock, 

 but in fewer numbers, and in other portions of our country is only rarely seen 

 during migration. In the spring, when the snow disappears, they arrive in the 

 marshes and frequent the edges, waiting imtil the water leaves their nesting- 

 places. Usually they begin breeding early in May, and about the middle of June 

 young may be found fully fledged. They generally breed in large societies, 

 in tolerably damp places covered with high thin herbage where there are tussocks 

 or small dry places, but also in the fields (in scattered pairs or small colonies), 

 and in small marshes covered with grass and bushes. On the top of a tussock or 

 a dry place they make a depression about three inches deep, and line it carefully 



* ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. p. 216. 



