THE GODWITS 521 



running on the ground. 1 In addition there is the warning or scolding- 

 note, uttered when the birds have young, " quit quit." 



THE GODWITS 

 [W. FARREN] 



The godwits are among the largest of the Waders, very long of 

 leg, and of graceful carriage. They undergo a striking change of 

 plumage in the spring, which is retained until the autumn moult. 

 Of the two European species, both of which are British birds, the 

 bartailed-godwit is slightly the larger in body, but the blacktailed 

 has longer legs and a slightly longer bill. The unfeathered part of the 

 leg above the tibio-tarsal joint is much longer in these birds, especially 

 the blacktailed species, than in any other British Waders with the 

 exception of the stilt and avocet. The rarely occurring dusky- 

 redshank approaches them in this respect, but it is a smaller bird. 



The blacktailed-godwit, the rarer of the two species, bred regularly 

 in some of the more marshy parts of the fenlands of East Anglia, 

 Lincolnshire, and South Yorkshire, up to the early part of last 

 century. But like the other more special marsh-nesting birds the 

 avocet, ruff, and black-tern, it gradually retired before the drainage 

 and cultivation of the fens. No doubt like the ruff its final 

 extinction as a nesting species was hastened by persecution. It 

 probably ceased to breed in Yorkshire about the end of the 

 eighteenth century, and in Lincolnshire about 1829. 2 In Norfolk 

 it lingered for a few years longer : a nest was found at Horsey in 

 1829, and it no doubt bred there later, possibly up to about 1835. 

 Professor Newton had an egg bought in Cambridge market in 1847 ; 

 and three eggs supposed to have been taken at Reedham in Norfolk 

 in 1857 were included in the sale of the collection of Mr. E. S. Preston. 3 



1 Aquatic Birds, p. 343. * Yarrell, British Birds, iii. 



3 Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 250. In addition to these must be mentioned a nest in 

 Lincolnshire, 1885 (cf . Classified Notes, ante, p. 453). 



