G O D W I T. 



649 



side, the one under the first dorsal, and the other near 

 the base of the tail. It is a small species, only be- 

 tween two and three inches in length. It is found 

 on many parts of the coast. The body is brown. 



Tlit spotted Goby. This species when full grown 

 is about three, inches in length ; and is plentiful in 

 the estuary of the Thames ; but it is not used for 

 any purpose except as a bait for other fish. The 

 ground colour is pale yellowish white, freckled with 

 small rust-coloured spots. 



There are several other species or varieties ; but 

 they are too minute and unimportant to be entitled to 

 any particular notice ; and we shall mention the more 

 interesting of the remaining genera that compose the 

 family under their generic names. 



GOD WIT (Limosa). A genus of Echassiers, or 

 stilt birds (grallidce or waders), and which belong to 

 the true marsh birds. They are of the longirostral, 

 or long-billed division ; and both in their structure 

 and their habits, they hold a sort of intermediate 

 place between the snipes and the avocets. 



The generic characters are : the bill very long, 

 soft and flexible throughout the whole of its length, 

 slightly recurved or turned upwards, depressed, and 

 flattened toward the tip. The two mandibles of the 

 bill have furrows toward the sides. The upper man- 

 dible is longer than the under one ; and there is a 

 sort of knob on the inner side of it at the tip, against 

 which the point of the lower mandible acts ; and 

 thus, though the bill is soft and flexible, it is capable 

 of breaking a small shell, or bruising any of those 

 little animals upon which the birds feed. The knob 

 in the godwits is not, however, so well developed as 

 in the snipes, and this forms one of the characteristic 

 differences between the two genera. The nostrils 

 are pierced in the furrow, and partially closed by 

 membrane. The legs are long and slender, and bare 

 of feathers to a considerable distance above the tarsal 

 joint. There are three toes to the front, and one to 

 the rear ; the three front ones are rather long, and 

 the middle and outer ones united by membrane as 

 far as the first joint. The hind toe is articulated 

 upon thv tarsus higher up than the others. The 

 wings are of mean length, best adapted for rapid and 

 whirling flight, the first quill being the longest. 



Marshes and the oozy banks of stream are the 

 favourite haunts of the godwits. They are never to 

 be met with in the open country, or on the margins 

 of clear waters which have pebbly banks and beds. 

 They are more aquatic in their habits than the snipes 

 and woodcocks, but less so than the avocets, as they 

 do not, like these, get into the runs of water, but dab- 

 ble or poke in the silt and sludge. They get the 

 generic name Limosa from their searching the slime 

 of the pools and streams, and they are sometimes 

 called " ooze -suckers," though they of course do not 

 actually suck the ooze and sludge, but merely search 

 it with their bills for the mollusca, worms, and other 

 small animals which it contains. Sight can be of no 

 use to them, and thus they depend on the sentient 

 properties of the bill, as an organ of feeling or touch. 



They are birds which consume the surplus produce 

 of places which are very peculiar, and not only widely 

 apart from each other, but subject to great seasonal 

 changes. Thus the godwits are all birds of passage, 

 shifting from one region to another as the seasons 

 alter the characters of those places in which they find 

 their food. At one season of the year the frost drives 

 them from the more northerly parts of their range, 



and at another the drought drives them from the 

 more southerly. They are not, however, so exclu- 

 sively migrants in latitude as those birds which feed 

 upon vegetables, or upon larvae and other animals, 

 which depend in a great measure upon the seasons 

 of vegetation. Their food is in the sludge, and there 

 are so many and such varied little animals there, that, 

 if there be the requisite quantity of moisture, in 

 countries which are perennially suited to their habits, 

 they remain all the year without migrating ; and such 

 countries are generally about the middle of the tem- 

 perate latitudes. They breed in the marshes, a con- 

 siderable way inland, if the situation suits them ; but 

 in the winter they descend nearer to the seas, and 

 may be met with in the oozy bays and estuaries, 

 though not decidedly in the salt water. When inland 

 they conceal themselves among the aquatic plants in 

 which they nestle ; and when they come to the sea, 

 they are abroad only at those times when the state of 

 the tide is favourable for their very peculiar mode of 

 feeding. The mornings and evenings are the times 

 at which they are most upon the alert ; and then they 

 may occasionally be seen running about with great 

 velocity, and poking in the soft and moist earth for 

 those little creatures upon which they feed. They 

 are, however, better known by their cry, which is 

 shrill and peculiar, and bears some resemblance to 

 the bleating of goats. Godwits belong to that class 

 which the epicures term " gut-birds ;" as such they 

 are highly prized ; and when they make their appear- 

 ance in the London markets they fetch a high price, 

 partly on account of their real value and partly from 

 their rarity. There are several species, and two at 

 least are British, though these, on account of their 

 variations in plumage with age or with season, have 

 been described as four or more. 



THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT (L. melannra) is the 

 species best known to British ornithologists, and it 

 certainly still breeds in the fens, though in fewer 

 numbers than formerly. At one time or another it 

 has got a great variety of names, and has been called 

 a snipe, a woodcock, a plover, and many other things 

 which it certainly is not. 



The chief cause of the confusion which there is in 

 the names and descriptions of tlie bird, appears to be 

 the changes of plumage to which it is subject ; but 

 there are some characters which remain constant in 

 all those changes, and by them it may always be 

 known. The chief, and they are sufficient for the 

 purpose, are the bill and the tail. In the bill, the 

 curvature upward is so very slight that it cannot be 

 discerned by the naked eye, without the application 

 of something straight to it, and it is probably on this 

 account that this bird has sometimes been called a 

 snipe. The point of its bill is, however, not nearly 

 so much thickened as in the snipes, which shows at 

 once that the godwit seeks its food in softer mud, 

 and therefore is closer to the margins of the waters 

 than the snipes. One sees a very beautiful gradation 

 in these birds, the snipes are very near the water, the 

 godwits are close upon it, and the avocets are in it 

 altogether. In the tail the permanent character is 

 the colour ; black in the two-thirds next the point, 

 and white in the basal third. If these characters are 

 attended to, the bird cannot be mistaken, whatever 

 may be the colours of the rest of its plumage. 



In its summer plumage the head of the godwit is 

 reddish brown, streaked longitudinally with dusky 

 black. The lower neck behind, the back, and the 



