152 8COLOPACID.E. 



posed dignity for the main shore to be uncovered. The assis- 

 tance of the glass, and a previous acquaintance with the appear- 

 ance of the species, enabled us to identify the godwits com- 

 posing this group, looking so strange, with the neck retracted 

 and the form huddled up as if perishing from the eifects of 

 cold. Whilst they remained, nine of the beautiful oyster 

 plovers alighted, and commenced circling the edge of the 

 bank in an even line, running in file, and attentively examin- 

 ing every little object uncovered by the receding tide. 



Strangely differing in association, we have also seen num- 

 bers of these beautiful godwits cribbed and confined in the 

 London markets, where, crowded together in cages, they are 

 fattened for the table. Pitiable in the appearance of their 

 resigned tameness, they seemed to bear their captivity with 

 the same quiet manner which distinguishes them in their 

 wild state. 



Habitat Western Europe. 



SPECIES 142 THE COMMON GODWIT. 



Limosa rufa. Briss. 

 Barge rousse. Temm. 



Red Godwit. Yarwhelp. Godwyn. 



THIS is another handsome species, although not possessing 

 the more elegant proportions of the melanura, or the same 

 brilliancy of plumage. Common on the coast during winter, 

 we observe it in the immediate vicinity of the city, frequent- 

 ing the shore where the strand is soft and oozy, probing and 

 searching the mud for insect food and marine worms with 

 their long, admirably adapted beak. 



During the severity of winter we see them congregated with 

 knots and dunlins, frequenting the " slob" which the inten- 

 sity of the frost had not succeeded in hardening. 



They are well known on the coast from their familiar 

 cry, resembling the syllable " whelp," which is invariably ut- 

 tered when alarmed before taking wing. 



On the strand in the vicinity of Baldoyle, much frequented 

 by various shore-birds, we were once gratified by the obser- 

 vance of a large flock, composed of nearly three hundred 

 godwits. They exhibited much tameness, feeding on a muddy 

 bank within some few yards of a mill situated there, the 

 creaking sound of whose machinery echoed loudly, unno- 

 ticed by them. Their appearance was interesting in the ex- 



