Their Eggs and Nests. i8i 



Heron either, with any great relish, not to speak of 

 other matters about equally, or more questionably, 

 "good eating." Both this species of God wit and the 

 one to be mentioned next are subject, like the Golden 

 Plover, the Gray Plover, the Spotted Redshank, and 

 many others yet to be named, to very great and strik- 

 ing changes of plumage in the breeding season. At 

 all times they are handsome birds. The Black- 

 tailed Godwit is hardly believed to breed still in 

 England. The nest is found in marshy places, made 

 of dry grass and the like, and more or less concealed 

 by the coarse growths peculiar to such places. The 

 eggs vary in both size and colours, but are usually of 

 a greenish olive-brown, marbled and blotched with 

 darker brown ; and, as usual in this class of birds, are 

 generally four in number. 



BAR-TAii.ii:D GOD\NYT—{Limosa Lapponica ; 

 formerly, L. riifa). 



Common Godwit, Grey Godwit, Red Godwit, God- 

 wit Snipe, Red-breasted Snipe. — Of much the same 

 habits as the last, and not remaining in this country 

 to breed, and consequently occuriing much more 

 frequently in winter than in spring: not at all in 

 summer. As not nesting with us, no space can be 

 conceded here for a notice of its eggs and nest. 



CURLEW — {Numenius arquata), 



Whaup. — As common a bird as almost any along 

 the whole of the British coasts. Sometimes singly 

 and sometimes in groups of eight or ten, it may be 



