SCOLOPACID^, 353 



course, frequently paying heavy toll through this want of caution. No 

 amount of persecution appeared to make them any wilder, aud as long 

 as they remained and were repeatedly being joined by fresh arrivals they 

 were most easily to be shot. At the beginning of October they all dis- 

 appeared, and we never saw a Bar-tailed Godwit in full winter plumage 

 from the Barnstaple river, although we possess one shot on the estuarv 

 of the Dart. Small flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits were not uncommon on 

 the Taw in the spring, when they were in the full red plumage, and we 

 have some fiue examples. Occasionally they remained until the middle 

 of June, and one day when we were bathing at Instow, in looking 

 towards the shore, we saw about a dozen in their beautiful summer 

 dress walking about among our clothes. The flocks appearing in the 

 autumn are mainly composed of young birds, when brown, grey, and 

 buff are the prevailing tints of their plumage. Genuine eggs of this 

 bird are rare in collections, but a few have been obtained of late years 

 in La])land and Finmark, and are said " to be different in texture and 

 more glossy " than those of the Black-tailed Godwit (Zool. 1892, p. 30). 



The Bar-tailed Godwit also occurs commonly on the Cornish, Dorset, 

 and Xorth Somerset coasts in the autumn. 



When the tide has been high, covering all the sands and mud-flats, we 

 have occasionally flushed and shot single examples of this Godwit in 

 turnip-fields adjoining the river. AYe have seen the birds using their 

 long legs to wade in the little pools left by the tide on the sands, or at 

 the edges of the ooze as the tide has been running out. 



Black-tailed Godwit. Limosa cegocephala (Linn.). 



A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, in spring and autumn, prin- 

 cipally on the south coast of the county. It is very rare in jN^orth Devon. 



Although this Godwit formerly nested in the fen districts ia the east 

 of England, and at the present time breeds commonly so close to us as in 

 Holland, it is now only an uncertain spring and autumn migrant, and is 

 extremely rare in the western counties. In North Devon Ave know of 

 only two examx)les having been obtained on the Taw, both immature 

 birds, wliich were shot in Septem1)er, one in 1859, the other in 1808. 

 In the south of the county the Black-tailed Godwit has occurred more 

 fretiuently, and several have been shot in the spring in the handsome 

 breeding-plumage. 



The Black-tailed Godwit is longer both in the beak and legs than the 

 Bar-tailed species, and is not so red in its summer plumage. 



Dr. E. Moore records a speciinou shot on Dawlisli Warron, near Exmoulli, in 

 18'JO, and mentions tluit Mr. C. Prideaux eaid it was not unCrcquontly met willi in 

 his neiglihourliood [Kingsbridgc] (Mag. N.-it. Ilii^t. LS.'iT, p. .'»l',t). One was obtained 

 on tiie Exe, .September l.-^.'V.t (F. W. L. R., MS. .Toiirn. ii. p. 103). A t'emale sliot 

 thi'ro wa."* brouglit to us in tbe flesli Se|)teiiiber l»t, 1H;")1. One in bi'eeding-])luMi;igo 

 i.s in tlie A. M. M. ; aud anotlier is in Mr. I'yiie's collection wliicOi is .said to have been 

 obtained on tlie Exe. One was killed at ^'ealmiiton, September ISib, IS.').') (J{., MS. 

 Kotcs). Four were sbot at Slapton Lev iu August and September iHG-t (C S., ' I3irde 



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