LIMOSA FCEDA : GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. 23! 



tinguished from a Curlew by the fact that the bill is 

 either straight, or bent a little upward, not decurved. 

 It does not appear to go far northward along the At- 

 lantic coast, where it is not common beyond the Middle 

 States ; being, in fact, a rare bird in New England. It 

 inhabits muddy estuaries and marshes, usually in flocks 

 of greater or less extent. 



The eggs of this Godwit, not as yet well-known, are 

 described by Coues in the following terms : 



" The only perfect set of eggs of the Godwit I have 

 seen were taken June 

 I, 1871, fifty miles 

 northwest of Saint 

 Paul, Minnesota ; both 

 parents were secured 

 and deposited in the 

 Saint Paul Academy, 

 where I examined 

 them ; so that the 

 identification is un- 

 questionable. There 

 are three eggs in this 

 set, measuring 2.30 X 

 1. 60, 2.28 X 1.56, and 2.26 X 1.62. The color is a 

 clear, light olivaceous-drab ; the markings are small 

 and numerous, but not very strongly pronounced 

 there is nothing (in this set) of the heavy blotching and 

 marking usually seen in waders' eggs. The spots are 

 pretty evenly distributed, though rather larger in two 

 instances, and more numerous in the other instance, 

 about the butt than elsewhere. These markings are of 

 various umber-brown shades, with the usual stone-gray 

 shell spots." 



FIG. 51. GREAT MARBI.ED GODWIT. 



