BIRDS 405 



in winter are more irregular than in settled weather, frost and 

 thaw, as well as changes in the tides, inducing the birds to 

 shift their quarters in unexpected ways. Speaking broadly, 

 this Godwit is a common, if local, bird on our Solway from 

 August until March. Some non-breeding birds often spend the 

 summer with us. The reader will observe that my remarks on 

 this Godwit have hitherto related almost exclusively to the 

 northern coast of Lakeland. It is so, and for this reason, that 

 the Godwit is not an equally abundant bird on our western and 

 southern estuaries. It visits Morecambe Bay only in very 

 moderate numbers, a fact well known to Dr. Gough, who 

 recorded that Mr. H. Arnold had shot two Bar-tailed Godwits 

 out of a party of three on the shore between Arnside and 

 Milnthorpe, in the Westmorland Gazette of October 10, 1874. 

 Williams of Barrow showed me some birds of the year, shot in 

 Walney Channel, where he considered them to be seldom 

 obtained. Mr. Durnford also recorded the species from Walney. 

 It does not appear to visit the Ravenglass estuary with any 

 frequency. 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



Limosa belgica (Gmel.). 



The Black-tailed Godwit is at all seasons a rare bird on the 

 western coasts of Britain. I have entirely failed to trace its 

 presence in Morecambe Bay or upon any other part of our coast 

 except the Solway Firth, which is occasionally visited by 

 stragglers — usually young birds. T. C. Heysham recorded the 

 occurrence of an immature specimen on Rockliffe marsh in 1832, 

 and received another local example from his fellow-townsman, 

 the late Mr. T. Reeves, with a note, only dated 'Saturday 

 night.' A few more specimens, but only very few, were killed 

 between 1832 and 1884, when we obtained two single birds, 

 shot at Bovvness and on Skinburness marsh on September 6 

 and October 24. No more were seen in 1885 or 1886, but in 

 1887 Mr. Nicol killed a single bird near Silloth on Sept. 27. 

 On the 25th of August 1888 the same excellent observer saw 

 two Black-tailed Godwits on a scar near Skinburness. A small 



