568 Mr. E. A. S. Elliot on the Godwits. 



some people have, I believe, stated that the bright-coloured 

 bird is the female ; but I found the rich chestnut-coloured 

 bird the male, though there is a slight tinge of colour on the 

 breast of the female, but nothing at all to be compared with 

 that of the male/' And, on my remarking that I had usually 

 found the Godwit a very silent bird, he goes on to say : 

 " The Bar-tailed Godwits are certainly not very silent on 

 their breeding-grounds, and in the winter-time in Holland 

 they call occasionally when on the wing, in small flocks, 

 but not often. It is very difficult — at least I find it so — to 

 put a bird's call accurately into words, and often no two 

 people would write it the same ; but, as near as I could get at 

 it, their call at their nests sounded to me like ' Koo-wak,' 

 and sometimes varied by ' Koowi-Koowi ' (repeated rapidly) ; 

 the latter is the one I hear in Holland in the winter.'' This 

 pretty accurately describes a sound which I have heard 

 uttered in a peculiarly squeaky tone, utterly unlike any other 

 bird-note I know. Again, describing their behaviour at their 

 nests Mr. Popham says : '^ I compare the Godwits to the 

 Whimbrels at the Fseroe Islands, especially as they shared 

 the ground with Buffon's Skua in the same manner as the 

 Whimbrels do with Richardson's Skuas." 



Although this species is met with in numbers only at the 

 times of migration on the south and west coasts of England, 

 we know that flocks thousands strong frequent the bays and 

 estuaries of the east coast north of the H umber, and also in 

 Holland, on the opposite shores of the North Sea, all through 

 winter. Extremes of temperature cannot, therefore, be the 

 predisposing cause of their movement south in winter, but 

 the reason must be sought for in their food-supply ; and it 

 would be interesting to ascertain in what way the shores of 

 the North Sea differ from those of the English Channel in 

 producing a food apparently to their liking. Tolerable 

 numbers also are stated to winter on the west coast of Ireland ; 

 but the faunistic relationship as regards birds in the south- 

 west peninsula of England is so similar to that of the south of 

 Ireland that I suppose the number seen in the latter place in 

 winter is small comparatively to that seen at the times of 



