ioo BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



breast-high to sleep. Whilst on actual migration 

 it is a restless bird, continually shifting its ground, 

 but later in the year it becomes more settled, and 

 will visit certain spots to feed with great regularity. 

 Its food, whilst on our coasts, consists of insects 

 (especially beetles), worms, crustaceans, and molluscs. 

 Its call-note is a loud and shrill tyil-it. This 

 Godwit breeds in May, making a slight nest on 

 the ground, concealed amongst herbage, in which 

 it lays four pyriform eggs, olive-brown, spotted 

 with darker brown and gray. 



The second and smaller species, the Bar-tailed 

 Godwit, Limora rufa, is certainly the best known, 

 and by far the most abundant. So far as my 

 observations extend, this Godwit occurs in greatest 

 numbers on the mud-flats and salt-marshes of the 

 Wash, where it is known in some places as the 

 " Scamell." There it is often taken in the flight- 

 nets, and it is a well-known bird to the gunners of 

 the coast. This Godwit passes along the British 

 seaboard towards the end of April, and early in 

 May, returning from the end of August up to the 

 first week in November. According to Professor 

 Newton the i2th of May is known as "Godwit day" 

 on the south coast of England, because about that 

 date large flocks of this bird arrive thereon, on their 

 passage north. Whilst with us its habits are much 

 the same as those of the preceding species. It is 

 gregarious throughout the winter, and often 

 associates with other shore-haunting birds. Both 



