BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 7 



birds. A few yards from this nest a Shoveller was sitting on nine eggs, 

 considerably incubated. 



" The eggs of the Black-tailed Godwit are four in number when the full 

 complement is deposited, olive-brown or pale olive-green in ground-colour, 

 indistinctly blotched and spotted with darker olive-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of greyish brown and pale inky grey. On some eggs the markings are 

 very pale and ill-defined. They are pear-shaped, and vary in length from 2-2 to 

 2'05 inch, and in breadth from 1'52 to 1"45 inch. It is impossible to give any 

 reliable points of distinction between the eggs of this Godwit and those of the 

 Bar-tailed Godwit, which require the most careful identification. Only one brood 

 is reared in the year. When the young are hatched the old birds become much 

 tamer, and approach within a few feet of the intruder. It is said that they attack 

 any predaceous bird that may chance to put in an appearance on their breeding- 

 grounds." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser states that he was informed by the late Mr. Benzon, who 

 met with this species nesting in Denmark, that the eggs measure from 1-89 by 

 1*45 inch to 2'2 by 1*49 inch, two varieties measuring 2'04 by l'o7 inch and 1'96 

 by 1"37 inch respectively. Mr. Dresser further states that Dr. Rey gives the 

 average measurements of 50 eggs of this species in his collection as 2'13 by 1"46 

 inch, the largest measuring 2'35 by 1"48 inch, and the smallest 204 by 1"37 

 inch.* 



Mr. H. Bendelack Hewetson informs me, at the moment of going to press 

 that the Black-tailed Godwit has been discovered nesting on the coast of Lincoln- 

 shire as recently as in 1885, by Mr. Bert Hamerton, of St. Alban's Vicarage, 

 Leeds. At my request Mr. Hewetson kindly obtained the following particulars 

 of the discovery, which I quote in Mr. Hamerton's own words : — " I am 

 pleased to describe the circumstances under which I found the Black-tailed 

 Godwit's egg, and will endeavour to do so as accurately as possible. The 

 part of the coast is situated about 8 or 10 miles south of Wainfleet, and is an 

 extensive stretch of grassy marsh, on the sea-side of the sea-bank, dotted all over 

 with innumerable pools of all shapes and up to the size of a tennis-lawn, mostly 

 very shallow. The marsh is crossed by drains from the land, which are guarded 

 by sluices at the sea-bank. These drains run into wide muddy creeks, which the 

 sea fills in spring-tides only. There is a large area of land raised to a slightly 

 higher level than the marsh which surrounds it ; this is covered with very tall 

 reedy grass, which tends to grow in tussocks round the edges of the pools and 



* ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. pp. 216, 217. 



