366 GODWIT 
said of it— C’est vn Oyseau es delices des Frangoys.” Casaubon, 
who Latinized its name “ Dei ingenium” (Ephemerides, 19th September 
1611), was told by the “ ornithotrophxus” he visited at Wisbech that 
in London it fetched twenty pence. Its fame as a delicacy is per- 
petuated by many later writers, Ben Jonson among them, and 
Pennant says that in his time (1766) it sold for half-a-crown or five 
shillings. Under the name Godwit two distinct species of British 
birds are included, but that which seems to have been especially 
prized is known to modern ornithologists as the Black-tailed 
Godwit, the Scolopax limosa of Linneus, the Limosa belgica, xgoce- 
phala, or melanura of other authors, formerly called, from its loud 
ery, a Yarwhelp,! Shrieker, or Barker, in the districts it inhabited. 
The practice of netting this bird in large numbers during the spring 
and summer, coupled with the gradual reclamation of the fens, to 
which it resorted, has now rendered it but a visitor; and it 
probably ceased from breeding regularly in England in 1824 or 
thereabouts, though under favourable conditions it may have occa- 
sionally laid its eggs for some thirty years later or more (Stevenson, 
B. Norf. ii. p. 250). This Godwit is a species of wide range, reach- 
ing Iceland, where it is called Jardrxka ( = earth-raker), in summer, 
and occurring numerously, it is said, in India in winter. Its chief 
breeding-quarters seem to extend from Holland eastwards to the 
south of Russia. The second British species is that which is 
known as the Bar-tailed Godwit, the Scolopax lapponica of Linnzeus, 
the L. lapponica or rufa of modern authors,? and this seems to 
have never been more than a bird of double passage in the United 
Kingdom, arriving in large flocks on the south coast about the 
12th of May (hence known as Godwit-day), and, after staying a 
few days, proceeding to the north-eastward. It is known to breed 
in Lapland, but its eggs are of great rarity. Towards autumn the 
young visit our coasts, and a few of them remain, together with 
some of the other species, in favourable situations, throughout the 
winter. One of the local names by which the Bar-tailed Godwit is 
known to the Norfolk gunners is Scamell, a word which, in the 
mouth of Caliban (Tempest, act ii. scene 2), has been the cause of 
much perplexity to Shakespearian critics. 
The Godwits belong to the group Limicolz, and are about as big 
as a tame Pigeon, but possess long legs, and a long bill with a slight 
upward turn. In the genus Limosa the female is larger and more 
conspicuously coloured than the male, who is believed to take the 
chief duty of incubation on himself. While the winter plumage is 
of a sober greyish brown, the breeding-dress is marked by a pre- 
! This name seems to have survived in Whelp Moor, as part of the fen between 
Ely and Brandon used to be called. 
2 LT. meyert of some authors seems to be the male of this species in his in- 
cubating plumage. 
