CHARADRIIDA, 623 
THE BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 
Limdésa Lappdénica (Linnzus). 
The Bar-tailed Godwit is a regular visitor to our estuaries, sand- 
banks and mud-flats in spring and autumn; young buff-breasted 
birds, which are at first very tame, often beginning to arrive in 
August. Mr. W. Evans informs me that in the Firth of Forth from 
300 to 500 pass the winter, while Mr. Abel Chapman and Mr. G. 
Bolam agree that far more resort to the coast of Northumberland ; 
but in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and southward to the Channel, com- 
paratively few are then to be met with. On the other hand, 
numbers in red breeding-plumage visit the south and east coasts 
on the spring migration, and in Norfolk, from the date of their 
arrival, the 12th of May used to be called by the Breydon gunners 
“‘ Godwit-day.” In Wales and the west of England this species 
is chiefly seen in autumn and winter; and the same may be said 
of that side of Scotland, where, however, flocks of non-breeding 
birds frequent the Sound of Harris, and also the Solway, in summer. 
In the Orkneys this Godwit is rare. In Ireland it is tolerably com- 
mon during autumn, though less plentiful in winter ; but many arrive 
on the west coast in March, and increase in abundance up to April, 
while numbers remain till nearly the middle of June. 
