CHAP. XXII. 



BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 



28s 



duck's eggs, which, though somewhat incubated, yet made a 

 good omelette. There was nothing, however, for dinner ; so 

 we all turned out to provide for the pot, Harvie-Brown 

 went south, and returned with only a few dunlins and a grey 

 plover ; he had chased a bar-tailed god wit * for some distance 

 near the seashore, but had not got within shot. I had met 

 with no better luck, although I had brought down a dozen 

 dunlins and grey phalaropes as they fed on the margin of a 

 lake. I had been able, however, only to secure three. At 

 the first step I took in the direction of my prizes, I sank 

 lower than knee-deep into the black mud. My gun also 

 snapped at a willow-grouse within easy aim. We returned 

 to our quarters somewhat down-hearted ; the gale was blow- 

 ing fiercer than ever, a thick mist covered the sea, gusts of 

 wind drove the rain into the wreck. We cooked ourselves 

 a supper of fried dunlins, allowed to each a weak basin of 

 Liebig's extract-of-meat soup, and half a slice of bread. 

 About midnight, as we smoked our pipes and listened to 

 the howling and spitting of the wind and rain outside, our 

 thoughts followed the forlorn-hope party we had sent out, 

 and we doubted whether it would meet with better luck than 



* The bar-tailed godwit (^Limosa 

 lapponica, Linn.) is confined to the 

 eastern hemisphere, ranging as far as 

 Kamtchatka, the eastern form haying 

 been erroneously described as a new 

 species under the names of Limosa 

 novw - zelandice (Gray) and Lirmsa 

 europygialis (Gould). In the British 

 Islands it is only known as a spring 

 and autumn migrant, being especially 

 abundant in the latter season. But 



little is known of its breeding-grounds, 

 the only authentic eggs having been 

 obtained in Lapland near the Arctic 

 circle. It winters on both shores of the 

 Mediterranean, but has not been recorded 

 from SouthAfrica. Eastwards it winters 

 in Scinde, Australia, New Zealand, 

 the islands of the Malay Archipelago, 

 China, and Japan. In the valley of the 

 Petchora we only met with this single 

 example, which we failed to secure. 



