Shore-bird Shooting 403 



arrange a blind in the range of the flight, but 

 finally by piling up heaps of seaweed and staking 

 them down far out in the shallow water, we 

 managed to kill a small number. They quickly 

 learned the danger, however, and would keep on 

 their course just out of reach. 



Late in September the young birds are more 

 readily shot, as they frequently come on to the 

 marshes. The godwit is a silent bird, and I have 

 seldom heard a note. The flesh is excellent, per- 

 haps the best of all the shore-birds. On its 

 spring migration the Hudsonian godwit is found 

 through various parts of the interior of the United 

 States ; here it passes up the Mississippi Valley 

 with the golden plover and they are killed in 

 some numbers in the Western states in May, 

 where they find their way occasionally into the 

 markets ; but the birds waste little time en route 

 and are generally in poor condition. The breed- 

 ing-ground is in the far Barren Lands of the Arc- 

 tic regions. June is the incubation time ; the nest 

 is a mere depression on the ground containing 

 three or four eggs. 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT 

 (Limosa Izmoscf) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Head, neck, and 

 jugulum, cinnamon, the head streaked and the jugulum barred 

 with dusky ; remaining lower parts, white, with dusky bars on 

 breast and sides ; back and scapulars, mixed with black, cinna- 



