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THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 
Limédsa BELGICA (J. F. Gmelin). 
This species used to breed in the south of Yorkshire until the 
opening of the present century, and down to 1829 in the fens of 
Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, while eggs were taken in Norfolk 
as recently as 1847. Now, however, the bird is observed only on 
the spring and autumn migrations and occasionally in winter ; the 
passage southward beginning in August and the return taking place 
from April to May. At no season is this Godwit numerous, and 
north of the Humber it is of irregular occurrence, while it is seldom 
obtained on the west side, even on the marshes of the Solway. On 
the east coast of Scotland it is rare to the north of the Firth of Tay, 
but an example was shot at Loch Spynie in the autumn of 1878, 
another on Westray, Orkneys, on September 27th 1894, and Tiree, 
in the Inner Hebrides, is sometimes visited in spring. In Ireland 
3c 
