642 SCOLOPACID^E. 



the winter. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson tells me, it is a 

 regular autumnal visitant. Small flocks are occasionally 

 seen in spring, and in the beginning of summer, in Corn- 

 wall and in Devonshire, as noticed by Mr. Couch, Dr. 

 Edward Moore, and Mr. Bellamy, and a few are seen in 

 winter. In Komney Marsh, on the Kentish coast, Mr. 

 Plomley says the same occurrences take place. The 

 authors of the catalogue of the Norfolk and Suffolk Birds, 

 say, " We have examined specimens of this bird killed in 

 Norfolk in various states of plumage. Those met with in 

 autumn have been in the dress of the Common Godwit 

 of English authors ; but when the individual was killed 

 early in the spring, it was in a state of change between 

 that bird and the Red-breasted Snipe of Montagu." 



Some years since many beautiful examples of this species, 

 in various states of plumage, were brought from Yarmouth 

 to London by Mr. Harvey, for sale, from one of which the 

 figure of the male bird, in perfect summer plumage as here 

 represented, standing up, was taken. Mr. Selby includes this 

 species among his Birds of Durham and Northumberland, 

 and Mr. Heysham has recorded one that was shot on the west 

 coast near Bowness in October, but considers it a rare bird. 



M. Savi, and other authorities, consider it a very rare 

 bird in Italy. It is only seen on its passage in Switzer- 

 land and France. A few are said to breed in the flat 

 marshy parts of Germany, and M. Temminck says that it 

 has bred in Holland. It visits Finland and the countries 

 to the eastward, but is very seldom seen on the islands, 

 or on the western shores of the Baltic ; nor in Gottland, 

 nor on the Danish islands west of the Sound. 



I believe this Godwit is not found in Lapland, nor do I 

 find it included among the Birds of Iceland or of Greenland 

 in any catalogue, unless it has been confounded with the 



