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SOME SPECIFIC OBSERVATIONS ON THE 

 WADING BIRDS. 



GODWITS. These are birds whose plumage and distribu- 

 tion have very often been wrongly described. The letter- 

 press appended to Bewick's inimitable woodcuts is wrong in 

 almost every fact stated both generically and specifically. 

 The descriptions in Morris describe nothing at all ; Montagu 

 at least illustrates the outer darkness in which scientists of 

 that era were groping their way ; and I find it impossible to 

 reconcile the opinions even of the latest authorities with my 

 own observations on the north-east coast. Colonel Hawker 

 professed no knowledge as a naturalist, but, at any rate, he 

 wrote FACTS ; his information on this, as on every other 

 point, was sterling, so far as it went, and his remarks on 

 God wits (Ed. X., p. 226) are probably better worth reading 

 than all the speculations of contemporary ornithologists. 



There are two species of Godwits the Common Bar- 

 tailed Godwit and the Black-tailed. The latter, however, may 

 at once be dismissed as all but unknown on the N.E. coast, 

 save as an accidental straggler on migration, usually in 

 September. It was this species which formerly bred in the 

 " fens " : nowadays there are no fens, consequently no 

 Godwits. 



The species referred to throughout these chapters is the 

 Common Godwit (Limosa lapponica of Linnaeus), generally 

 called in books the " Bar- tailed" Godwit, though its tail is 

 not barred, except in the young (cf. infra). The old God- 

 wits, while here, have the tail plain ash-blue like the rest 

 of their winter plumage. A few of the outside feathers, it is 

 true, exhibit white splashes or indentations on their inner 

 webs ; but these are not bars, and cannot be seen except when 

 the tail is widely spread open. 



B 2 



