BAB-rTAILED GODWIT. 31 



Its flight is in all respects like that of the foregoing species, 

 and when alighting it generally raises the tips of its wings 

 straight upwards just before touching the ground. 



Of the reproduction of this present species, nothing is 

 known beyond the fact of its going northward in the month 

 of May, and, as before mentioned, remaining all that month 

 and part of June about the coast of Denmark, and that it 

 returns southward again in August. It appears somewhat 

 doubtful where the intermediate time is past. Linnaeus 

 mentions Lapland ; and the only representation of the egg- 

 that we know of is given by Thienemann, a continental 

 author, who obtained his specimen from Norway. The ap- 

 pearance of the egg is as follows : — Its shape is somewhat 

 smaller and narrower than that of the black-tailed godwit, 

 its colour a pale brownish-olive, with grey spots in the grain 

 of the shell, and greenish dusky spots and dots on its outer 

 surface, particularly disposed about the larger end. It is 

 probable that the number of eggs is four, such being the 

 case with snipes in general ; and the habits of the bird leave 

 little doubt of the nest being placed on the ground among 

 short grass or other herbage. We cannot help expressing as 

 our opinion, considering the circumstances above-mentioned, 

 that this species retires inland to breed, journeying for that 

 purpose to the extensive marshes of upper Sweden, and Fin- 

 land, and part of Lapland ; the time of two months, during 

 which only it is absent from the coast of Denmark, being 

 too limited for a distant northern journey. Temminck says 

 that it breeds in England and Holland; if so, we shall one day 

 or other hear of the eggs being found, but until then we are 

 not inclined to go in search of them. 



The male, in summer plumage, is a very conspicuous ob- 

 ject ; its head and back part of the neck pale orange-brown, 

 with streaks of dusky ; chin and streak over the eye reddish- 



