5G4 SCOLOPACID.E. 



LiMOSA. Generic Characters. — Bill very long, rather thick at the base, 

 compressed, slightly curved upwards; both mandibles grooved laterally to 

 within a short distance of tiie point, which is somewhat dilated and blunt ; 

 tip of the upper mandible projecting beyond the lower one. Nostrils, basal, 

 placed in the lateral groove, narrow and longitudinal. Wings pointed, of 

 moderate length, the first quill-feather the longest. Legs long and slender, a 

 great part of the tibia naked. Feet four-toed, three in front, one behind; the 

 outer toe united by a membrane to the middle toe as far as the first joint, the 

 inner toe nearly free ; hind toe short, and articulated upon the tarsus. 



GoDwiTs, of which in Britain there are two species, ap- 

 pear to have been more common formerly than they are at 

 present. Sir Thomas Browne, when writing some of his 

 notes on Natural History, two hundred years ago, says, 

 " Godwits are taken chiefly in marsh-land ; though other 

 parts are not without them : they are accounted the daintiest 

 dish in England." This bird was considered an article of 

 luxury in Ben Jonson''s time. 



Your eating 

 Pheasant and Godwit here in London, haunting 

 The Globes and Mermaids; wedging in with lords 

 Still at the table. 



Dev. an Abs, iii. 3. 



And Thomas Muffet, that " ever famous doctor in physick," 

 as he is called in his title-page, says in " Health^s Improve- 

 ment," page 99, " but a fat Godwit is so fine and light 

 meat, that noblemen, yea, and merchants too, by your 

 leave, stick not to buy them at four nobles a dozen." — 

 Nare''s Glossary. 



It is still the practice of some of the fenmen in Lincoln- 

 shire to fat a few Godwits on bread and milk with the RufFs 

 as formerly, when they happen to catch any, and I have 

 seen several within the last five or six years that had been 

 sent up to the London market for sale after having been 

 thus fed and fatted ; but though considerably larger than 

 the RufF, they are not in such high estimation as an article 

 for the table. 



