204 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



approached when in flocks than when in pairs or alone ; but curiously enough 

 the reverse is often the case on our coasts. It may frequently be seen in marshy 

 meadows, and occasionally frequents long grass almost as tall as itself. This 

 Godwit, whilst on passage, is remarkably restless, and shifts its ground a good 

 deal, but when once fairly settled in its winter quarters it continues to visit 

 certain feeding grounds for many weeks in succession. Hume states that in 

 India although they have certain spots, especially rice stubbles and fields and 

 patches of wild rice, to which they resort for several hours during the day to feed, 

 they also feed at other times in places to which they resort for the remainder of 

 the day. The food of the Black-tailed Godwit consists of worms, insects and 

 their larvae, crustaceans, sand-worms, and snails. In summer this food is varied 

 with shoots and roots of aquatic plants ; and in winter, according to Hume, rice, 

 whenever available, both cultivated and wild, is this Godwit's favourite food, in 

 additon to which it eats great quantities of millet seed, and the seeds of grass and 

 sedges. Its kind of food, this writer informs us, depends a good deal on what 

 may chance to be to hand, and its gizzard is usually crammed with one variety 

 alone. The call-note of the Black-tailed Godwit resembles the syllables tyii-it, 

 but its alarm note is a loud and clear tyu, tyil, most persistently uttered when the 

 breeding grounds are invaded by man. 



Nidification. — The breeding season of the Black-tailed Godwit commences 

 at the end of April or in May, in Poland and Jutland, a little later in higher 

 latitudes, and the young may be seen fully fledged towards the end of June. 

 Although not strictly gregarious during this period, numbers of nests may be 

 found within a small area of the marshes and swampy meadows on which this 

 species breeds. The nest, found with difficulty, is usually well concealed amongst 

 the herbage, and is often placed in a tussock of sedgy grass, the wettest ground 

 generally being preferred. It is merely a hollow about three inches deep, some- 

 times but not always rather neatly lined with dry grass and other vegetable 

 refuse. The eggs are four in number, various shades of olive-brown in ground- 

 colour, spotted and blotched with darker olive-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of pale brown and grey. They are pyriform, and measure on an average 

 2'15 inches in length by 1'5 inch in breadth. As soon as the breeding haunts are 

 invaded the Godwits rise and fly to and fro with noisy clamour, rarely if ever 

 remaining on their nests until approached ; and when the young are hatched they 

 become more bold, and venture within a few feet of the intruder's head. They 

 are said to be very pugnacious at this period, and will even attack cattle that 

 chance to stray on to their haunts, and pursue with great fierceness any wan- 

 dering Crow or Hawk that invades their quarters. One brood only is reared in 

 the year, and as soon as the young can fly the move southwards begins. 



Diagnostic characters.— Limosa, with the retrices black with white 

 bases, and the axillaries white, sometimes obscurely barred with brown. Length, 

 16 inches. 



