•IS CASSELL'S BOOK OF BIRDS. 



and small head. The high slender foot is four-toed, and the wing long and pointed, with the first 

 quill longer than the rest ; the short, somewhat rounded tail, is composed of twelve feathers. The 

 smooth thick plumage is ot very uniform hue, and varies according to the season of the year. The 

 birds of this sub-family have some resemblance to the Snipes, and also to the Tringtz , but their legs 

 are longer and somewhat stouter in proportion to their size. The chief difference, however, is in 

 the bill, which in birds that as far as regards their haunts are such close neighbours, is the most 

 important. The beak of the Godwits is very long, soft, and flexible ; its whole length is rather 

 compressed, and triangular at the base, depressed in the rest of the length, and dilated and obtuse 

 at the tip. It has been described as, " not a snapping bill, nor a boring bill, neither is it a scooping 

 bill, nor a dabbling bill ; indeed, it is difficult to find a single epithet descriptive of the function it 

 performs, or rather of the manner in which it performs its functions. It is not shovelling or 

 scooping, for these birds do not remove from its place the sludge and sediment of the water 

 among which they seek their food; and they do not dabble and wash the mud as Ducks do, till 

 they find the substance of which they are in quest. 'Poking' is the nearest epithet, but does 

 not express the action exactly, as they ' try about ' and select their food by the sense of touch, 

 and not by sight." These Godwits are more of a wading habit than the Snipes, yet their food 

 is not found in the water, but in the ooze ; and if the ooze is soft enough to be penetrated by the 

 bill, the fact of its being with or without a small stratum of water over it is of little consequence. 

 Their food consists chiefly of mud-worms, mud-insects, and mud-larva5, and the places which they 

 frequent are the localities in which these most abound. The banks of the eddies of slow-running 

 streams, or the accumulation of sludge that is left bare in the estuaries and creeks upon the shores 

 of low rich land, on the ebbing of the tide, and especially the streams of mud from the richer ground 

 into the pools of fens, are the favourite resorts of these birds. They breed in the fens, at a consider- 

 able distance inland, it the ground is suitable, but they descend nearer to the sea in winter. In their 

 inland haunts they hide themselves during the heat of the day among the long grass where they have 

 their nests ; but when near the sea, their resting-time varies with that at which the tide leaves their 

 feeding-places in the best condition. Godwits run very fast, and make their escape to a considerable 

 distance before taking wing, at whicji time they utter a very loud, harsh, and somewhat bleating note. 

 These birds were formerly much more common with us than they are now, and were regarded by our 

 forefathers as the daintiest dish in England. They were sometimes valued as high as four nobles the 

 dozen, after they had been fattened for the market on bread and milk. 



THE RED OR BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 



The Red or Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa rufd) is on the crown and nape ot a light rust-red, 

 striped with brown. The feathers on the back and shoulders are black, spotted and edged with 

 rust-red ; those of the wing-covers grey with white borders. The rump is white, spotted with brown. 

 The eyebrows, throat, sides of neck, and lower parts of the body are bright, dark rust-red ; the sides of 

 the breast and lower tail-covers spotted with black. The quills are black, veined with white \ and the 

 tail grey, striped with white. The eye is brown, the beak reddish, tipped with blackish grey, and the 

 foot black. In the plumage of the female all these colours are duller. During the autumn the coat is 

 principally of a greyish shade, the upper portions of the body being grey, spotted with blackish brown ; 

 the centre of the beak, rump, and lower tail-covers are white. This species is fifteen inches and a half 

 long and twenty-six broad ; the wing measures two inches, and the tail two inches and three-quarters. 



Great numbers of these birds visit England both during their spring and autumnal migrations, 

 but they have never been known to breed in our island, though some few remain throughout the 

 winter. In Holland and the level parts of France they are far more common, and are annually killed 



