248 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



Mr. Miller's collection at Yarmouth. This may be 

 either one of those killed at Hickling in 1822, or, which 

 is quite as likely, Mrs. Baker's bird of 1824. All but 

 one of the above examples seem to have appeared during 

 the summer months between May, June, and July. 

 In the Dennis collection at Bury, I also found a bird 

 of this species, described as shot at Orford, but date and 

 sex unrecorded. 



LIMOSA MELANURA, Leister. 

 'BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



The Black-tailed Godwit is another of those gral- 

 latorial birds which, within the last half century only, 

 have ceased from breeding in our marshes. It were 

 needless here to repeat the " twice told tale " of its 

 extinction, the same causes having effected the same 

 end in this as in many other cases, but I have thought 

 it desirable to ascertain as nearly as possible, from 

 contemporary evidence, the date when this fine species 

 ceased to nest in Norfolk. 



"Five species in particular," wrote Mr. Lubbock 

 in 1845, "used formerly to swarm in our marshes, 

 the godwit, the ruff, the lapwing, the redshank, and 

 the black tern. * * * * Whilst the redshank, 

 in the breeding season, flew dashing around the head 

 of the intruder on his territories, and endeavoured 

 like the lapwing to mislead the stranger from the 

 nest, higher in the air, and flying in bolder circles 

 uttering a louder note, was the black-tailed godwit, 

 called provincially the " shrieker " from its piercing 

 cries. This bird is now almost extinct in this part 

 of Norfolk; it used to breed at Buckenham, Thyrne, 



