THE GODAVIt] 



Bv I'M'ij), WOOD, A\i) \\'.\'ri:ij. 



[the oodwit. 



appearance of the upper parts of the plumn«»e is 

 glossy olive-brown ; ami tlioso on tlii' HliouMorH, 

 Bcapular:^, aiul tertiaU are transveryt-ly marked 

 with the same coloured waved bars, on a pale 

 rusty ground. Tlio bastard wing and principal 

 quills are dark brown ; and tlie inner webs of 

 the latter are deeply edged with white, treekled 

 with brown; and some of tlioso quills next the 

 secondaries are beautifully marked, near their 

 tips, with narrow browu lines, exactly pointed, 

 and shaped to the form of each featlier. Sev- 

 eral of the secondaries are barred in the same 

 manner, and some are white. The back is 

 white; the tail-feathers and coverts are ele- 

 gantly marked with alternate bars of dusky 

 grey and white. The middle ones are slightly 

 tinged with russet. The legs are red, and mea- 

 sure, from the end of the toes to the upper 

 bare part of the thigh, four inches and a-half. 

 This bird is solitary in its habits, being 

 usually found alone, or in pairs only. Its 

 habitation is among the fens, or in wet or 

 marshy lands, where it rears its young. It 

 lays ibur eggs, of a whitish hue, tinged with 

 olive, and fi'ccklcd with irregular spots of black, 

 chiefly on the broad end of the egg. When 

 disturbed, it wheels round its nest in the air, 

 and utters a cry similar to the lapwing. It is 

 not very easily shot, on account of the spiral 

 motion it makes, and the rapidity of its flight; 

 but it gives excellent sport to a joung shooter. 



THE GODWIT. 



This is the Scolopax ^noce])ala of Lin- 

 nreus, of which there are several varieties : its 

 difierence of plumage is to be regarded as 

 a mark sufficiently strong to determine 

 this. Its length, from the extreme end of 

 the bill to the tip of the tail, is twelve 

 inches, and to the end of the toes, nearly 

 fifteen. Its breadth is twenty-one inches and a 

 quarter, and its weiglit is five ounces and two 

 draclims. The bill is slenderly formed, mea- 

 suring two inches and a-half from the corners 

 of the mouth to the tip, and is, for half its 

 length nearest to the base, of a reddish hue, 

 and the other part black. The irides are 

 hazel. Tlie head, breast, neck, and belly, have 

 spotted streaks, mottled and barred with dingv 

 ash-brown and dull white, whicii become darker 

 towards the hinder part of the neck. The 

 tliroat is white ; and lines of the same colour 



pass from the upper sides of the beak over each 

 eye, from tlio cornerH of which two brown ones 

 extend to the nostrils. The shoulderH, scapu- 

 lars, lesser coverts, and tail, are of a glossy 

 olive-brown. The feathers on all these parts 

 are indenti-d on the edges, in a greater or less 

 degree, with triangular-shaped white spots. 

 The back is white, and the rump barred witli 

 waved lines of ash-coloured brown and dingv 

 white. The feathers about the vent are marked 

 in a similar manner, but they have a larger 

 proportion of white. The tail and coverts are 

 likewise barred with narrow waved lines, of . 

 dull ash-colour; and, in some epecimeug, arc 

 nearly black and white. Five of the principal 

 quills are dark brown, tinged with olive; the 

 shaft of the first quill is white ; the next six 

 are, in tho male, rather deeply tinged with 

 white, and slightly spotted, barred with brown. 

 The secondaries, as far as uncovered, when tho 

 wings are extended, are of the samo snowy 

 whiteness as the back. The feathers which 

 cover the upper part of the thighs, and those 

 near then], are bluisli, with a reddish or vi- 

 nous hue. Tho legs are of a deep orange red, 

 and measure, from the end of the middle toe- 

 nail to the upper part of the thigh, five inches 

 and a-half. Colonel Montague says there i:^ 

 a larger kind of godwit than this, weighing 

 twelve ounces, and measuring about eighteen 

 inches in length. 



This bird was known formerly ns a perma- 

 nent resident amongst us, resorting to tho 

 fens from the moors, where they were taken 

 by means of a stale or stufled bird, after tlio 

 manner of the ruff and reeve. Towards the 

 winter the godwit may be seen at the mouths 

 of many of our large rivers, and it is then a 

 very popular object of pursuit to water-fowl 

 shooters. At Hudson's Bay, it packs in such 

 numbers, that there have been fifty and sixty 

 of them killed at one shot. 



There is another variety of the above. This 

 has the greater covert of its wings so deeply 

 margined with light grey-brown as to appear 

 almost all white at a distance, and the sides of 

 the body have a few long streaks of brown. 

 The bird is met with in various parts of Eu- 

 rope, Asia, and America ; and in Great Britain, 

 in the spring and summer, it takes up its resi- 

 dence in the fenny districts and marshy grounds, 

 where it feeds upon small worms and insects. 



571 



