THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 463 



264. Bar-tailed Godwit [ROSTROTHE UFERSCHNEPFE]. 

 LIMOSA RUFA, Brisson.i 



Heligolandish : Road Marling = Red Godwit. Young birds : Grii Marling. 



Limosa rufa. Nauinann, viii. 446. 



Bar-tailed Godivit. Dresser, viii. 203. 



Barge rousse. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 668, iv. 424. 



This species too is only seen here in very isolated instances, but 

 much more frequently than the preceding. The majority of the 

 birds which are shot, now and again, during the close of the summer, 

 are young individuals. Old males in perfect plumage occur only very 

 rarely : one such example I obtained in May 1854, and from that 

 time no others were met with until May 1887. On the 14th and 

 15th of the latter month, two unusually beautiful examples, in 

 the most perfect breeding plumage, were brought to me. There 

 is no doubt that the natural conditions of this island are responsible 

 for their rare appearance; for it is of quite common occurrence, 

 in the most beautiful breeding plumage, on Neuwerk, which is 

 close to Heligoland in the estuary of the Elbe, and also upon the 

 islands on the west coast of Sleswick-Holstein. Among the babel 

 of voices of migrant hosts, composed of all the different species 

 of shore and other birds which annually pass across this island 

 during the dark nights of autumn, the call-notes of this Godwit 

 may be heard in abundance ; besides which, how many different 

 rattling, piping, and quacking sounds does not one hear during such 

 nights, proceeding from the general throng of migrants above, 

 sounds which are utterly unknown to any gunner or fowler on 

 this island ; and could we manage to get into our possession the 

 feathered wanderers from whom these voices emanate, the avifauna 

 of Heligoland would no doubt be enriched by many a rare and 

 interesting addition. 



The nests and eggs of this species have been discovered by 

 Wolley in Lapland, and by von Middendorff in the Taimyr 

 Peninsula. No other breeding places of the species are known. 



Plover Gharadrius. This genus, with its more or less closely 

 related forms, is represented by a large number of species through- 

 out the whole world, all of those which occur as breeding birds in 

 Europe being also found in Heligoland. In addition to this, Heligo- 



Limosa lapponica (Linu.). 



