100 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 
breast-high to sleep. Whilst on actual migration 
it is a restless bird, continually shifting its ground, 
but later in the year it becomes more settled, and 
will visit certain spots to feed with great regularity. 
Its food, whilst on our coasts, consists of insects 
(especially beetles), worms, crustaceans, and molluscs. 
Its call-note is a loud and shrill ¢yd-ct. This 
Godwit breeds in May, making a slight nest on 
the ground, concealed amongst herbage, in which 
it lays four pyriform eggs, olive-brown, spotted 
with darker brown and gray. 
The second and smaller species, the Bar-tailed 
Godwit, Limora rufa, is certainly the best known, 
and by far the most abundant. So far as my 
observations extend, this Godwit occurs in greatest 
numbers on the mud-flats and salt-marshes of the 
Wash, where it is known in some places as the 
“Scamell.” There it is often taken in the flight- 
nets, and it is a well-known bird to the gunners of 
the coast. This Godwit passes along the British 
seaboard towards the end of April, and early in 
May, returning from the end of August up to the 
first week in November. According to Professor 
Newton the 12th of May is known as “‘Godwit day” 
on the south coast of England, because about that 
date large flocks of this bird arrive thereon, on their 
passage north.. Whilst with us its habits are much 
the same as those of the preceding species. It is 
gregarious throughout the winter, and _ often 
associates with other shore-haunting birds. Both 
