THE GODWITS 523 



from south-west (inland) to the north-east, none settling to rest or 

 feed on Breydon as they passed over." Booth, who spent much time 

 at Breydon in the month of May, said that he had often spent the 

 whole month from daylight to dark on the mud-banks, without seeing 

 more than two or three hundred pass during the month. He stated 

 that he had on two or three occasions observed large flocks passing 

 twenty or thirty miles from land. 1 On May 6, 1909, a large flight of 

 godwits was observed at Cley in Norfolk ; the birds were passing in 

 a continuous stream for three or four hours. 2 Like the blacktailed 

 species, they appear to pass out of the country south of the Humber. 



Mr. Abel Chapman states that the winter residents leave the 

 north-east coast in May before assuming the breeding plumage, and 

 he adds that the adult summer plumage is not known there. The 

 winter residents are all or nearly all birds of the previous year ; these 

 assume the breeding plumage later than do old birds, but they 

 probably do not get the full plumage until their second or third year. 

 The non-breeding birds, which occasionally spend the summer in the 

 Solway and Cromarty Firth, retain the grey plumage of winter. 3 

 There is therefore considerable variation in plumage, depending on 

 age and season. The first year birds in autumn and winter, speckled 

 brown and buff ; the adults in winter, ash blue ; adults in summer, 

 brown back and red breast ; and birds in their second summer, 

 intermediate between the first plumage and the adult summer 

 plumage. 



The return passage is heralded by occasional small parties, which 

 have been observed as early as the middle of July, consisting of adult 

 birds, very wild, and mostly in breeding plumage. 4 On July 20, 1908, 

 a few were observed in E. Ross-shire, followed by a large increase 

 on the 27th. 5 The large flocks, consisting in the main of immature 

 birds, do not arrive until towards the end of August, and migration 



1 Booth, Rough Notes of Birds by Land and Sea, Hi. 



1 B. O. C. Migration Reports, 1910, p. 188. Bird-life of the Borders, p. 245. 



4 Fauna of Lakeland, p. 403. 



B. 0. C. Migration Reports, 1910, p. 276. 



