CHAPTER VII 



MORE WADERS 



THE Bar-tailed Godwits are also called May-birds 

 on some parts of the coast : local names are often 

 slightly confusing. The names May-bird, Poor 

 Willie, Stone Plover, and Yarwhelp are all applied 

 to the Godwit. 



When the young birds reach us in their first flight, 

 direct from their nesting haunts, they are speckled 

 with brown and buff, and when they first arrive they 

 are of a most confiding nature, but this wears off 

 very soon. On some parts of the coast they are 

 very local, and few in number ; but where sand-bars 

 are of great extent, and mile after mile of very 

 dangerous flats are left nearly dry at ebb tide, there 

 you may look for and see Godwits. 



As to circumventing them, well, that is quite a 

 different matter. When driven off the bar and flats 

 they go to the rough pasture fields and keep a look- 

 out there. But not for all the Godwits that visit our 

 shores would I go where I have been for them, and 

 without getting one. Others can tell the same tale ; 



I am not alone in that boat. 



72 



