BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 635 



LIMOSA. Generic Characters. Bill very long, rather thick at the base, com- 

 pressed, slightly curved upwards; both mandibles grooved laterally to within a 

 short distance of the point, which is somewhat dilated and blunt ; tip of the 

 upper mandible projecting beyond the lower one. Nostrils basal, placed in the 

 lateral groove, narrow and longitudinal. Wings pointed, of moderate length, the 

 first quill-feather the longest. Legs long and slender, a great part of the tibia 

 naked Feet four-toed, three in front, one behind ; the outer toe united by a 

 membrane to the middle toe as far as the first joint, the inner toe nearly free ; 

 hind toe short, and articulated upon the tarsus. 



GODWITS, of which in Britain there are two species, ap- 

 pear to have been more common formerly than they are at 

 present. Sir Thomas Browne, when writing some of his 

 notes on Natural History, two hundred years ago, says, 

 " Godwits are taken chiefly in marsh-land ; though other 

 parts are not without them : they are accounted the 

 daintiest dish in England." This bird was considered an 

 article of luxury in Ben Jonson's time. 



Your eating 



Pheasant and Godivit here in London, haunting 

 The Globes and Mermaids ; wedging in with lords 

 Still at the table. 



Dev. an Ass^ iii. 3, 



And Thomas Muffet, that " ever famous doctor in phy- 

 sick," as he is called in his title-page, says in " Health's 

 Improvement," page 99, " but a fat Godwit is so fine and 

 light meat, that noblemen, yea, and merchants too, by 

 your leave, stick not to buy them at four nobles a dozen." 

 Nares's Glossary. 



It is still the practice of some of the fenmen in Lincoln- 

 shire to fat a few Godwits on bread and milk with the 

 Ruffs as formerly, when they happen to catch any, and I 

 have seen several within the last five or six years that had 

 been sent up to the London market for sale after having 

 been thus fed and fatted ; but though considerably larger 

 than the Ruff, they are not in such high estimation as an 

 article for the table. 



