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Genus LIMOSA. 



Limosa, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 281 (1760). 



Scolopax apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 246 (1766). 



Totanus apud Bechstein, Gemeinn. Naturg. Deutschl. iv. p. 234 (1809). 



Actitis apud Illiger, Prodromus, p. 262 (1811). 



Limosa, Leisler, Nachtr. Bechst. Naturg. Heft ii. p. 150 (1815). 



Limicula apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. iii. p. 249 (1816). 



Fedoa apud Stephens in Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. i. p. 73 (1824). 



The Godwits inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, Nearctic, and Neotropical 

 Regions, two species being resident in the Western Palsearctic Region. 



They frequent marshes and damp localities, and are found both on the sea-coasts and inland, 

 in the latter localities during the nesting-season, and usually on the coasts during passage. They 

 walk with ease, and frequently wade far into the water in search of food. Their flight is strong 

 and tolerably swift, resembling that of other larger Sandpipers. They are gregarious, and are on 

 passage seen in flocks, frequently consorting with other species of waders, especially with Knots ; 

 and they also breed in small colonies. They feed on small aquatic insects &c. and crustaceans, 

 which they obtain on the shores of pools and in morasses and on the sea-coasts. They place their 

 eggs, which are four in number, in a depression in a tussock or in some tolerably dry place, which 

 they line with dry grass. The eggs are dull greenish, indistinctly blotched with brownish 

 olivaceous, and are pyriform in shape. 



Limosa lapponica, the type of the genus, has the bill more than twice the length of the 

 head, slender, higher than broad at the base, tapering and recurved towards the tip, which is 

 slightly enlarged and obtuse ; both mandibles flexible to a considerable extent, and grooved 

 nearly to the tip ; nostrils linear, basal ; wings long, pointed, the first quill longest, the inner 

 secondaries elongated, tapering ; tail short, nearly even ; legs long, slender ; tibia bare for fully 

 or more than a third of its length ; tarsus scutellate ; hind toe small, elevated ; anterior toes 

 long, slender, marginate, webbed at the base, the web between the outer and the middle toe 

 being the largest ; claws small, curved, obtuse, that on the middle toe slightly dilated on the 

 inner edge. 



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