THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. ^ 



The young in autumn resemble in plumage the adult in winier, except that 

 all the feathers of the head, neck, and back have dark brown-grey shaft-stripes ; 

 the lower back, like the rump, is white, and both are spotted with dark grey- 

 brown ; the upper tail-coverts barred with this colour ; all the wing-coverts have 

 conspicuous white margins. Length 15 J inches, closed wing 8. 



The . nestling (teste Meves) is rusty buff above, lighter below, and mottled 

 with black, especially on crown and rump. 



They nest in colonies, and make a shallow hollow in the top of a tussock in 

 a marsh, lining it with fine grass, and depositing, about the end of April, four 

 eggs ; these are much like those of the last species, but paler usually, and rather 

 larger, measuring 2j by full i inches. Taczanowski states that both sexes 

 incubate. The last published account of the nest is Chapman's in "Wild 

 Norway" (Chapter xix), which is, as is usual with that writer, graphic, and gives 

 a good idea of the behaviour of the birds near the nest. The food of the Black- 

 tailed Godwit consists of worms, insects, larvae, and, by the sea, annelids and 

 Crustacea. Like the Bar-tailed Godwit, it is not a noisy bird in general, uttering 

 only a monosyllabic scream when disturbed ; at the nest, however, it is otherwise, 

 and when intruders shew themselves, these birds have a loud and incessant call, 

 which Chapman renders as tritte-tue others as grutto, grutto, which are hardly 

 recognizable as the same note, and exemplify the unreliability of almost all 

 attempts to render birds' notes in writing. 



