THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 221 



passes over the eye, below which the cheeks, neck, and breast, 

 are pale reddish brown, and all the rest of the under part is 

 white. 



In winter, the brown on the clothing feathers of the upper 

 part fades to grey, and the black to brown ; the dark colours 

 in the wings and tail become a little dingy ; the reddish brown 

 disappears from the cheeks, neck, and breast, leaving all the 

 under parts white. In spring and autumn, when the colours 

 are changing, but especially in the former, the breast and 

 upper part are mottled. The young have the whole plumage 

 more mottled and dingy than the old birds in either of their 

 plumages, or even during the changes. 



The size and weight are subject to considerable variations, 

 but the average length is about seventeen inches, of which 

 the bill occupies about four, and the stretch of the wings is 

 nearly two feet. 



Godwits are shy and retiring birds, generally concealing 

 themselves during the day among the tall herbage of the fens, 

 and coming out to feed only in the twilight, or indeed during 

 the night. As they find their food by the touch of the bill, 

 and not by the eye, light is less necessary to them in their 

 feeding. They eat indiscriminately the small animals that 

 have been mentioned, and the spawn of frogs more rarely 

 that of fishes ; but though it is sometimes said, it does not 

 appear that they eat the albuminous roots of aquatic plants, 

 as their bills are not very well fitted for such purposes. They 

 are sometimes found within floodmark on the oozy shores ; 

 but the fresh-water fens are their favourite places, in which 

 they rear their broods. The nest, like that of the whole tribe 

 to which they are related, is very simple ; the eggs are four, 

 of a dull brownish olive green, marked with obscure blotches 

 of the same, a little darker. 



These birds, as is the case with all the fresh-water marsh 

 birds which feed upon soft and gelatinous animal food, are 



