160 Bent, The Marbled Godwit. [aSa 



THE MARBLED GODWIT ON ITS BREEDING 

 GROUNDS. 



BY A. C. BENT. 

 Plate III. 



It was on the twelfth day of June in 1901 that I first made the 

 acquaintance of this magnificent shore bird. We had been col- 

 lecting for several days in some extensive sloughs bordering a 

 large lake in Steele Co., North Dakota, which we have found 

 exceedingly rich in bird life. Canvasbacks, Redheads and Ruddy 

 Ducks were nesting in the bulrushes and flags, as well as numerous 

 Coots, Pied-billed Grebes and Black Terns. Red- winged and 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds fairly swarmed through the reeds and 

 filled the air with their ceaseless din. Sora and Virginia Rails 

 were breeding about the edges of the sloughs, concealing their 

 nests in the little tussocks of grass growing in the shallow water. 

 The beautiful Wilson's Phalaropes were flitting about among these 

 tussocks, and it was while hunting for their nests that we noticed, 

 among the numerous noisy Killdeers and Western Willets flying 

 over us, a strange hoarse note, strikingly different from either, as 

 a large brown bird flew past, which we recognized as a Godwit. 

 All doubts were soon dispelled by collecting my first specimen of 

 a species I had often longed to see, and I could not help pausing 

 to examine and admire the beautiful markings of its richly colored 

 wings. We saw only four of these birds that day, but on the fol- 

 lowing day they became more abundant. There were about twenty 

 of them flying about over the meadows, showing considerable con- 

 cern at our presence, constantly uttering their peculiar cries, and 

 showing so little regard for their own safety that we were led to 

 infer that they were breeding or intending to breed in that vicinity. 

 We spent some time looking for their nests, but, as we knew practi- 

 cally nothing about their nesting habits at that time, we were not 

 successful in locating any nests. They may have been merely 

 recent arrivals, possibly only transient migrants, but they should 

 have been in their breeding grounds at this date or earlier. 



