BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 5 







yards ahead, nor will it usually return thereto until it has made itself pretty 

 confident that the danger has disappeared. To find the nest is therefore no easy 

 matter ; indeed, after considerable experience, T may say that few birds are so 

 cautious of their nests as Godwits, and even when the nest has, after long search, 

 been luckily discovered, stiU the old birds never come within range of ordinary 

 gunshot. The general cry of these Waders, when not distressed, may be syllabled 

 as ' Tu-ee-tood ' often repeated, but they have a variety of cries, their distress-call 

 being a clamorous wail, not unlike that of a Common Buzzard, though, of course, 

 not so loud. The date of laying seems to vary considerably, for on May 10th we 

 found our first nest, containing foiu' very hard-set eggs, which must have been 

 laid about the last week in April. Then, on May loth, we not only found a nest 

 containing four fresh eggs, but we were also fortunate enough to discover a brood 

 of young ones, perhaps two days old. It should be mentioned, in explanation, 

 that we had thrice tried to find this last nest ; but the bird always rose from 

 a different part of the marsh, which led us to believe that she must have young, 

 and it was while making, after a long watch, a final effort to find the eggs that 

 we accidentally stumbled on the young birds in the long grass. On one occasion, 

 after we had been lying for some time pretty well concealed, we noticed through 

 the binoculars a Godwit walking and running towards us until it eventually 

 disappeared quite suddenly. We thought it might have sat down on its nest, so 

 we marked the place carefully and then stood up ; the bird instantly rose about 

 150 yards from us, and on walking straight to the spot we were delighted to find 

 the nest with four olive-green eggs. In another instance we observed two birds 

 playing together in the air over a certain part of the bog in such a manner that 

 our suspicions were sufficiently aroused to cause us to cross the quaking surface 

 until we actually walked right on to the nest and its four eggs. The nests were 

 mere depressions in the moss, without any special lining-material, and four is the 

 number of eggs laid. The downy young have extraordinarily developed legs and 

 feet in comparison with the size of the body ; the beak and legs are lead-colour ; 

 the body pale yeUow or fawn, with darker brownish-coloured streaks or bars ; the 

 irides black. Even when only a day or two old, these youngsters were adepts 

 at walking amongst the roughest grass ; they uttered a plaintive little call-note 

 when trying to find each other in the grass. By the aid of an old brown-coloured 

 Avater-dog we were able to secure specimens of the parent birds, but without this 

 dog they never came within shot. The females are much larger and longer in the 

 bill than the males ; their heads, necks, and breasts are a pale red or fawn-colour, 

 bellies white, and backs grey, splashed a little with black and russet-coloured 

 feathers." 



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