4 SCOLOPACID.^. 



and neatly with dry grass, depositing four eggs, Avhich both male and female sit 

 on. If a human being approach their nesting-colony, they meet him when some 

 distance from it, uttering loud cries, and returning again and again in larger 

 numbers as he comes nearer to their nests. When he is amongst the nests all 

 the birds fly overhead uttering a continual lamentation. If the intruder remains 

 there any time, they become tamer, and a few return to their eggs, especially if 

 the latter are hard-set. Before they have eggs they are very shy, rarely 

 approaching within gunshot ; but when the young are hatched they are most 

 courageous, and will come within a few feet of the intruder, not even retreating 

 wlien fired at, and dozens may be killed. They will attack a cow or horse if they 

 approach their breeding-places, and attack and pursue any bird of prey or Crow 

 that may pass near. When the young have attained a good size the parents take 

 them to some other place, generally to the fields or shores of the lakes, where 

 they assemble from all parts, and leave when old enough to do so. This is the 

 best time to shoot them, as both parents and young fly near the sportsman, the 

 latter not calling. All the families, when strong enough on the wing, assemble 

 and leave us very quickly, in small flocks, only stragglers remaining as late 

 as July.' " 



Mr. Alfred C. Chapman has published the following interesting account of 

 a visit, in 1893, to the breeding grounds of this species in West Jutland * : — " A 

 glance at a map of West Jutland will show that it is broken up into fiords and 

 marine inlets, communicating with the sluggish rivers flowing from the flat 

 interior. In some cases the junctions of these rivers with the sea form soft 

 marshes, rushy lagoons, and areas of shallow brackish water, more or less studded 

 with islets and promontories overgrown with salt-grass, far removed from the 

 ordinary haunts of aquatic fowl. The marshes, as distinct from the islets 

 and salt-grass promontories, are areas of squashy moss, grass, rush, and bog-plants 

 interwoven one with another, difficult, if not dangerous, to explore ; but in most 

 cases there are creeks of water which intersect these marshes in various directions 

 and enable a flat-bottomed boat to be pushed about so as to give access to their 

 interiors. Then it becomes necessary, in the search for eggs, to traverse on foot 

 their squashy surfaces, where, at every step, the ground quakes for yards around 

 in most unpleasant fashion and the water oozes out of the moss well over one's 

 boot-tops. Such are the places most loved by the Black-tailed Godwit {Limosa 

 (fqocephnla), and on approaching, the wailing cry will soon be followed by the 

 appearance of a bird high in air. That bird has left its nest perhaps a thousand 



* "z\. Contribution towards the Ornithology of "West Jutland," ' Ibis,' 1S94, pp. 340, 311. 



