166 Bent, The Marbled Godwit. [j£g a 



them readily enough while it was still running, the other disap- 

 peared entirely, right before our eyes and within ten yards of us. 

 Its disappearance seemed almost miraculous, for there was practi- 

 cally nothing there to conceal it, as the grass was quite short, and 

 there were no shrubs or herbaceous plants of any kind in the 

 vicinity. We searched the whole locality carefully and thoroughly, 

 but in vain. The youngster may have been crouching flat on the 

 ground, relying on its resemblance to its surroundings, or it may 

 have taken advantage of some slight inequalities in the ground and 

 skulked away further than we realized. Later in the day we found 

 another pair of Godwits, in a similar locality, with two young, one 

 of which we secured. The young were in the downy stage and 

 apparently not over a week old. They showed unmistakable God- 

 wit characters, particularly in the shape of the head and bill, and 

 the long legs and neck. They were covered with soft down, pink- 

 ish buff in color, more pronounced on the sides and neck, paler 

 ventrally, and almost white on the throat, chin, and sides of the 

 head. The occiput, cervix, back, rump and wings were heavily 

 blotched with seal brown, or clouded with hair brown, the latter 

 color shading off gradually into the buff on the sides, where the 

 first plumage was beginning to appear. There was a narrow 

 loral stripe on each side, and a medium crown stripe of seal 

 brown, the latter running from the base of the bill to the occiput. 



As soon as the breeding season is over, or even before all the 

 broods are fledged, the Marbled Godwits begin to gather into 

 flocks and become much more wary. Even as early as June 27, 

 1906, we saw as many as thirty-six birds in one flock, but, as we 

 did not see any young birds among them, we inferred that these 

 must have been birds whose eggs or young had been destroyed. 



As I have always had to leave for the East before the southward 

 migration began, I am unable to give any information on this sub- 

 ject from personal observation, but Dr. Louis B. Bishop has kindly 

 placed at my disposal his notes relating to this movement. 



At Stump Lake, North Dakota, in 1902, he noted on July 28 

 a flock of about one hundred Marbled Godwits, chiefly adults, all 

 that were taken being old birds ; and on July 30 he saw a flock of 

 about fifty, which he assumed to be composed chiefly of young birds, 

 all that were taken being in juvenile plumage. At the same locality 



