l68 WADING BIRDS. 



HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 



RING-TAILED MARLIN. 

 LiMOSA ILEMASTICA. 



Char. Upper parts dusky, mottled with buff; head and neck rufous, 

 streaked with dusky ; rump dusky ; tail-coverts mostly white ; tail dusky, 

 tipped with white ; under parts rich chestnut, barred with dusky. Length 

 14 to 16 inches. 



Nest. Near a stream or lake, — a slight depression, lined with a few 

 leaves or bits of grass. 



Eggs. 3-4 ; grayish olive or hair brown, spotted with darker brown ; 

 2.20 X 140. 



The Hudsonian, or American Black-tailed Godwit, though 

 abundant in the Barren Grounds near the Arctic Sea, where it 

 breeds, is an uncommon visitor in the Eastern and Middle 

 States of the Union, although, from all analogy and the impos- 

 sibility of the species subsisting through the winters of its natal 

 regions, we are certain that the whole retire into mild climates 

 to pass the winter. They probably, like some other birds of 

 the same countries, retire southward by an inland route, or 

 even pass the autumn on the shores of the northwestern coast 

 of the continent. Be this as it may, the present bird is among 

 our greatest rarities, as I have seldom seen more than two or 

 three pair in the course of the season ; these are found on the 

 neighboring coast of the Bay, and called by the market people 

 of Boston, Goose Birds. I obtained a solitary pair of these 

 stragglers about the 8th of September ; they were very fat and 

 well flavored, scarcely distinguishable in this respect from the 

 Curlew, and appeared to have been feeding on some Ulva or 

 other vegetable substance. Several pair of young and old 

 birds were brought to market this year (1833), ^O"^ ^^ 6th 

 to the 30th of the same month. An individual now in the 

 Philadelphia Museum was shot also near the coast of Cape 

 May, in New Jersey. They sometimes associate with the 

 Plovers, and descending to the marshes and the strand, feed 

 upon minute shell-fish, shrimps, and the roots of the Zostera. 

 According to Richardson, they frequent boggy lakes, like the 



