144 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 
Limosa MGOcEPHALA, Linn. 
Pl. XXL, fig. 4. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe, through Siberia and India, to China and 
Japan; also N. Australia: it is doubtful whether this bird still breeds 
with us; formerly it was known to breed in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 
Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. 
Food.—Insects, worms, Mollusca. 
Nest.—Composed of dried grass and other herbage. 
Position of nest.—Concealed amongst coarse vegetation in low- 
lying meadows and niarshy land. 
Number of eggs.—4. 
Time of nidification.—_IV-V_ usually May. 
This species appears to have become extinct as a breeder 
in Great Britain. Mr. Howard Saunders says :—‘‘ The 
Black-tailed Godwit was accustomed to resort to the 
marshes of Norfolk and the fens of the Isle of Ely and 
of Lincolnshire, down to about the year 1829, by which 
time the drainage of suitable haunts and the persecution 
of gunners, netters, and egg-gatherers, had done their 
work. <A few pairs appear to have nested irregularly until 
a later date, for Mr. E. §. Preston is said to have obtained 
three eggs, which were stated on good evidence to have 
been taken near Reedham in Norfolk in 1847. A few birds 
now linger for a few days in spring about the localities where 
their predecessors found suitable breeding-grounds, but they 
pass on, and at the present day the Black-tailed Godwit is 
only known as a visitor on migration.”—(Yarrell’s Hist. 
Brit. Birds, 4th ser., vol. iii. p. £90.) 
Writing of this bird in 1846, Hewitson stated that it 
bred occasionally, though sparingly, in the fens of Cam- 
bridgeshire and some of the marshy districts of Norfolk. 
One of the eggs which he figures is coloured like my egg of 
the Whimbrel, but is rather smaller and mottled, and 
spotted more like that of the Curlew. He mentions, 
however, that some varieties have scarcely any perceptible 
markings. My figure, taken from an egg presented to me 
by my valued friend the Rev. W. Bree, has, unfortunately, 
been printed of too lively a green, the true tint being duller 
and more olivaceous. 
