BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 305 



THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 

 LIMOSA MELANURA. 



So far as I can learn, the Black-tailed Godwit, which is still 

 believed to breed in limited numbers in the south of England, is 

 strictly a winter visitant, and is only of occasional occurrence in 

 any part of Scotland. I have very rarely indeed seen west country 

 specimens : one which I examined was shot near Dumbarton on 

 25th November, 1867; another, the sex of which was not noted, 

 was taken in the flesh to Mr M'Culloch, bird-stuffer, Glasgow, on 

 the last week of August, 1869; it was killed on the Castle Semple 

 estate, Renfrewshire. The Earl of Haddington informs me that 

 early in the same month in which the Dumbarton specimen 

 occurred, another was procured on the shore near Leith. I recollect 

 being informed by my lamented friends, the late John Nelson, Esq., 

 Broomhouse, Dunbar, and his brother the late Dr Nelson, Pitcox, 

 that they had occasionally shot this species in the Tyne estuary, 

 in East Lothian; but I took down no dates of its occurrence, 

 and am now unable to trace any records of the fact in letters 

 I received from these gentlemen. Writing from Northumberland, 

 which is not far distant from that county, Mr Selby (111. Br. Orn., 

 vol. ii., p. 96) speaks of the Black-tailed Godwit as being widely 

 dispersed at the period of its annual movements, and as 

 frequently visiting the Northumberland coast and other northern 

 districts. To that statement he adds in a foot-note that while 

 writing his account (March, 1831) four Godwits were brought to 

 him for sale, " three of which were of the black-tailed species, and 

 just beginning to acquire the summer plumage." 



Elsewhere on the east coast specimens of this bird have been 

 obtained; on at least two occasions in Forfarshire, and also in 

 Aberdeenshire. Respecting its occurrence in the last named 

 county, Mr Angus writes to me as follows: " Black-tailed Godwit 

 on the 2nd September, 1867, I shot two immature birds, out of 

 a very large flock, as they passed southwards by the coast line, 

 near Aberdeen. Their stomachs contained sand and broken shells. 

 The bar-tailed godwit has been procured every autumn for the last 

 seven years, between the Dee and the Ythan, along the coast; but 

 Mr Mitchell, who has been collecting and stuffing during the last 



