43 



Grey Plover, Knot, Bar-tailed or Common Godwit, and Little 

 Stint, should all arrive here about the same time, some of these 

 species being found in America as well as Europe, and others not. 

 The Knot and Common Godwit (the former common to both con- 

 tinents, the latter not) seem to come almost in the same flocks. 

 This year, whilst at the seaside on Sept. 6, after a morning of 

 heavy rain and strong northerly wind, the afternoon being sunny, 

 I walked out on the sand, where I saw a large flock of Godwits, 

 probably just arrived. They looked quite buff in the sunshine, 

 and let me walk pretty well up to them, and I shot eight, and 

 one Knot, all young birds an interesting lot, as it enabled me 

 to make comparison of the individuals, and observe the difference 

 in the size of the males and females. Some of the latter exceeded 

 by Sin. in extent of wing some of the males. I find I have ob- 

 served the beak of this species to vary in length from 2^-in. to 

 4in. They have a pretty cry, somewhat resembling some of the 

 notes of the clarionet. Both these species when they arrive are 

 excellent eating. 



But the question is, whence come they ? From the abundance 

 of both these species, their breeding grounds must be very exten- 

 sive. I think it is unlikely that such birds would travel over a 

 continent entirely of land for any great distance. More probably 

 their course is along shore ; but how difficult to trace. In the 

 young of the Common Godwit the males and females are equally 

 rich in colour, whilst in the old birds in summer plumage the 

 male is very much darker than the female, which often shows 

 very little red at all. The Common Godwits, Grey Plovers, and 

 Knots which visit, in their spring migration, the more southern 

 and eastern counties of England, and do not come on to this coast 

 at that season, may possibly pass eastward and travel over the 

 lakes and seas and narrow pails of land until they reach the 

 White Sea, and pass on till they arrive at a sufficiently high 

 latitude in Asia to breed, as there seems no land in Europe par- 

 allel with the Xorth Georgian Islands were Capt. Sabine states 

 the Knot was found breeding abundantly ; or they may go round 

 by the North Cape ; but we do not often hear of their being met 



