222 scolopacidjE. 



some years previously, spent a considerable part of a day, endea- 

 vouring, though unsuccessfully, to obtain a shot at one of these 

 plovers, which he saw in a field near Youghal. In 1837, 1 was told 

 by Mr. T. W. Warren of a specimen (seen by him when recent) 

 having been killed some time before at Clontarf, Dublin Bay. One 

 in the possession of Mr. E. J. Montgomery was shot in the month 

 of January 1836 (?), when flying over the river Eobe, within six 

 miles of Lough Mask, county Mayo. Mr. Eichard Chute, writing 

 from Blennerville in February 1846, remarked, that Mr. Eosberry, 

 who resides in that village, saw a few of these birds, in company 

 with lapwings, about twenty years previous to that time, near 

 Adare, county of Limerick. 



This species is only known to visit England and Scotland at 

 irregular intervals. It does not migrate to the north of Europe, 

 and is hardly known in the western parts of that continent which 

 are southward of the British Isles. 



THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



Limosa melanura, Leisler. 

 Scolopax limosa, Linn. 



Frequents the coast in autumn and winter — more es- 

 pecially at the former season — in very limited 

 numbers. 



Almost every autumn for many years past, a very few of these 

 birds have been obtained in Belfast Bay j and there is little doubt 

 of the species being a regular autumnal visitant to Ireland.* 



A few still breed in the marshes of England ; but the numbers 

 that do so are becoming annually less. I have not seen any 

 notice of their having bred in Scotland ; and they are not known 



* A bird-preserver in Belfast, questioned on this subject in 1838, stated, that 

 lie was pretty sure of having received one or two black-tailed godwits to be set up 

 every autumn for the preceding fifteen years, or since he had commenced the busi- 

 ness of taxidermist. 



