190 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
late migrants are quite ruddy on the chest, while others show hardly a trace of rusty above 
or below. Length 7 to 8.75 inches; wing 4.70 to 5; culmen .95 to 1; tarsus .90 to 1.05. 
103. Marbled Godwit. Limosa fedoa (Linn.). (249) 
Synonyms: Great Marbled Godwit, Great Godwit, Red Curlew, Brant Bird, Red 
Marlin, Brown Marlin, Spike-bill—Scolopax fedoa, Linn., 1758.—Scolopax marmorata, 
Lath., 1790.—Limosa fedoa, Ord, Aud., Nutt., and most recent authors. 
A snipe-like bird of large size (wing about nine inches), known from its 
relatives by the long bill (84 inches or over) which has a distinct upward 
curve all the way from base to tip. and by the cinnamon color of the lining 
of the wings. 
Distribution.—North America; breeding in the interior (from Iowa and 
Nebraska, northward to Manitoba and the Saskatchewan), migrating in 
winter to Guatemala, Yucatan, and Cuba. 
This is a rare species in Michigan at the present time, but seems to have 
been less so formerly. Covert records the capture of a female on Clam Lake, 
Cadillac, May 3, 1881 (Marginal notes in Coues Key), and Hazelwood 
states that it is “less common in September on the Michigan shore of Lake 
Huron near Port Huron” (MS. List, 1904). L. Whitney Watkins has a 
specimen in his collection, marked ‘Monroe Flats, 1881,” which was 
obtained from a taxidermist at Manchester, Michigan many years ago. 
A mounted specimen in the Kent Scientific Museum (No. 20063) is marked 
“D. D. Hughes, Grand Rapids,’ but bears no date. It seems to be in 
autumnal plumage. ‘There is also a nicely mounted adult in the Barron 
collection at Niles, but without data. 
The Marbled Godwit is said to be decidedly rare in Wisconsin, Illinois, 
and Ohio at present. It was formerly an abundant bird of the prairie 
regions west of the Mississippi, but of late years seems to be found in 
numbers only about the alkali lakes and large bodies of shallow water in 
the far west. According to Kumlien and Hollister (Birds of Wisconsin, 
1903, 48) ‘Mr. H. Nehrling gives it as breeding in the Northern Peninsula 
of Michigan,” but I am not able to verify this statement. 
It is said to nest most commonly in Manitoba and the Saskatchewan 
region, but it also nests in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and other 
western states. The nest is placed on the ground, and the eggs are pale 
olive to light grayish buff, rather sparsely spotted with dark brown and 
dull purplish gray, and average 2.27 by 1.60 inches. 
Professor Aughey found it feeding freely on locusts in Nebraska in 1867 
and 1874, but says that it never feeds exclusively on them; he found from 
30 to 45 other insects in each of the stomachs examined (1st Rep. U. 8. 
Entom. Com. Appendix 2, p. 53). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Tail and its upper coverts cinnamon or buff, barred with black or brown; axillars and 
under wing-coverts also cinnamon. Chin white; rest of underparts buffy white to pale 
cinnamon, streaked on the throat, and more or less thickly barred on breast and sides 
with brown or brownish black; entire top of head and back and sides of neck brown, streaked 
with ashy or buffy white; rest of upper parts brown, the feathers variously spotted, barred, 
edged or tipped with buffy white or cinnamon; wings mainly brownish black, the outer 
primaries buffy on the inner webs and with white or buffy shafts; basal half of bill flesh- 
colored, the remainder brown or black; legs and feet dark slate. Adults are more heavily 
barred below than the young, which often are entirely without dark markings on breast, 
sides and belly. Apparently there is little or no difference in the sexes. Length 16.50 
to 20.50 inches; wing 8.50 to 9; culmen 3.50 to 5; tarsus 2.50 to 3. 
