480 BIRDS — SCOLOPACIDiE. 



LiMOSA FEDOA (L.) Old. 



Gi-reat Miarbled Gi-od-wit. 



Limosa fedoa, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 165, 185 ; Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts, 

 xl., 1841, 24.— Whkaton, Ohio Agrio. Rep. for 1860, 369, 378 ; Eepiint, 1861, 11, 19 ; 

 Pood of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1874, 572; Reprint, 1875, 12.— Langdon, 

 Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15 ; Revised List, Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 182 ; 

 Reprint, 16. 



Great Marbled Godwit, Kirtlaxd, Fam. Visitor, i, 1850, 164. 



Scolopax fedoa, LiSNiEOS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 224. 

 Limosa fedoa, Obd, ed. Wils., vii, 1825. 



Tail barred throughout with black and rufous, rump and upper tail-coverts like the 

 back ; no pure v^hite anywhere. General plumage rufous or cinnamon -brown ; below, 

 nearly unmarked and of very variable shade, usually deepest on the lining of the wing ; 

 above, vaiiegated with black and brown or gray ; quills rufous and black ; bill flesh- 

 ■ colored, largely tipped with black; feet dark. Large; length, 16-22; wing, about 9; 

 tail, about 3^ ; bill, 4-5 ; tibia bare 1-li ; tarsus, S^-SJ ; toes, IJ, stout. 



Habitat, entire temperate North America ; Central and South America. Breeds in the 

 Missouri and Upper Mississippi regions, and thence to the Saskatchewan. Winters in 

 Southern States and southward. 



Not common spring and fall migrant. Dr. Kirtland notes its capture 

 in several instances in Northern Ohio, in addition to that mentioned on 

 page 220, and in connection with the Glossy Ibis following. Mr. Langdon 

 states, on the authority of Mr. Dury, that thirty-three were " shot in one 

 day, near the mouth of the Little Miami, some years ago by Charles 

 Weeks, Esq." A specimen was taken by a son of Dr. Jasper in the 

 immediate vicinity of this city, April 21, 1879. 



Dr. Coues says (Birds N. "W., p. 493) : / 



" Comparatively little has been learned of the breeding resorts and habits of this God- 

 wit, though it is such a common and generally distributed bird duriig its migrations 

 and in winter. Audubon surmises that it may breed in South Carolina and perhaps in 

 Texas, where, as Mr. Dresser found it in summer, it probably does. Occuring in abun- 

 dance along most of the Atlantic coast, it nevertheless appears less common north of 

 Massachusetts, and has not, it would appear, been observed much, if any beyond New 

 England in that longitude. The centre Of its abundance in summer, and its main breed- 

 ing ground, is, apparently, the Northern Mississippi and Eastern Missouri regions, and 

 thence to the Saskatchewan ; for, unlike its relative (L, hudsonica), it does not proceed 

 very far north to nest. It breeds in Iowa, and in Minnesota and Eastern Dakota, 

 where I olserved it in June, and where the eggs have been procured. I found it on the 

 plains bordering the Red River, in company with Long-billed Curlews and great num- 

 bers of the Bartramian Sandpipers, nesting, like these species, on the prairie near the 

 river and about the adjoining pools, but not necessarily by the water's edge. In its habits 

 at this season it most nearly resembles the Curlew, and the two species, of much the 

 same size and general appearance, might be readily mistaken at a distance where the 

 difference in the bill might not be perceived. On intrusion near the nest, the birds 



