326 GREAT MARBLED GOD WIT. 



dull yellowish white ; primaries, black, white at the root half ; 

 secondaries, white, bordered with brown ; rump, dark brown ; 

 tail, rounded, twelve feathers pale olive, waved with bars of 

 black ; tail-coverts, white, barred with olive ; bill, pale lead 

 colour, becoming black towards the tip ; eye, very black ; chin, 

 white ; breast, beautifully mottled with transverse spots of olive 

 on a cream ground ; belly and vent, white, the last barred 

 with olive ; legs and feet, pale lead colour ; toes, half webbed. 



Towards the fall, when these birds associate in large flocks, 

 they become of a pale dun colour above, the plumage being 

 shafted with dark brown, and the tail white, or nearly so. 

 At this season they are extremely fat, and esteemed excellent 

 eating. Experienced gunners always select the lightest col- 

 oured ones from a flock, as being uniformly the fattest. 



The female of this species is generally larger than the male. 

 In the months of October and November, they gradually dis- 

 appear. 



GEEAT MAEBLED GODWIT. (Scolopax fedoa.) 



PLATE LVL— Fig. 4, Female. 



Arct. Zool. p. 465, No. 371. — La Barge Eousse de Baie d'Hudson, Buff. vii. 507. — 

 Peale's Museum, No. 4019. 



LIMOSA FBBOA.—Yifillot. 

 Limosa fedoa, OroVs edit, of Wils. — Bonap. Synop. p. 328. 



This is another transient visitant of our sea-coasts in spring 

 and autumn, to and from its breeding place in the north. 

 Our gunners call it the draight-billed curleiv. and sometimes 

 the red curleiv. It is a shy, cautious, and watchful bird ; yet 

 so strongly are they attached to each other, that on wound- 

 ing one in a flock, the rest are immediately arrested in their 

 flight, making so many circuits over the spot where it lies 

 fluttering and screaming, that the sportsman often makes great 

 destruction among them. Like the curlew, they may also be 



