6 SCOLOPACID.E. 



Respecting the nidification of this species Mr. H. Seebohm writes * : — " Tlie 

 breeding-season of the Black-tailed Godwit commences in May, and fresh eggs 

 may be obtained throughout that month. Although tlie bird is so rare in 

 the British Islands, it breeds commonly on the opposite coasts of continental 

 Europe, whence numbers of its eggs are annually sent to London for sale. 

 Its breeding-grounds are in marshy districts ; and although the bird can scarcely 

 be called gregarious at this season, numbers of its nests may be found in 

 a comparatively small area. Capt. Elwes and I took the nest of this bird 

 in Jutland, near Tarm. On the 17th of May Ave devoted our time to the 

 marshes by the river, poling down stream in a flat-bottomed boat as far 

 as the fjord, to which I have already alluded in my article on the Avocet. 

 In many places these marshes are of great extent. On some of the higher 

 ground a rank grass grows, but in most places it is moss, lichen, peat, sand, 

 and sedge, except where we sank a few inches in the water. It was rough- 

 drained in most places, with dykes a yard or more wide, but in general we found 

 a good bottom. The river was dammed-in with turf-banks, though it sometimes 

 divided into several streams, and occasionally opened out into a lake full 

 of Equisetiim Umosum. In one place the marsh was full of patches of reeds four 

 or five feet high. The total length down to the fjord was perhaps eight 

 miles 



"At last we came upon several pairs of Black-tailed Godwits, whose 

 loud cries betrayed the vicinity of their nest or young. Once or twice we heard 

 their call-note, from which the name Godwit is derived, and which sounds like 

 tyu-it ; but the alarm-note — a loud, clear, rich tyii, tyu — was almost incessant as 

 they hovered over our heads, with their feet projecting beyond their broad tails. 

 As we crossed and recrossed the ground in every direction, they watched us with 

 the greatest anxiety, sometimes flying away for a short time, but always 

 reappearing again with renewed cries. In two places we spent at least an 

 hour in a fruitless search for the eggs, and finally we came to the conclusion that 

 they had young, and gave up the attempt. After spending some time in 

 exploring the south shore of the fjord, we crossed to the north shore as a sort of 

 forlorn hope. Here a small colony of Black-headed Gulls revived our drooping 

 spirits, and then, by pure accident, I stumbled upon the nest of a Black-tailed 

 Godwit. It was a mere hollow in the short coarse herbage, on the dry part of 

 the ground, somewhat deep, and lined with a handful of dry grass. The eggs, 

 four in number, Avere slightly incubated ; but we did not see a trace of the parent 



* 'History of British Birds,' vol. iii. pp. 104, 165. 



