418 THE BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 
along the Red Sea Coasts, and also on the Northern Somali Coasts 
z.é., the southern shores of the Gulf of Aden, from September to 
December. In Algiers it is common in winter, as it is also about 
Tangiers and other places in Morocco, and it is said to have occur- 
redon the Western Coast of Africa as far south as the Gambia 
River, and occasionally to have straggled to the Canaries. 
Excluding the Azores, the Fzroe Islands and Iceland, it appears 
to have occurred in most of the countries and islands of Europe 
breeding apparently for the most part between the 60th and 
70th degrees North Latitude. 
THE EARLIEST occurrence of this species, of which I know 
was, when one was killed by Captain Butler at Kurrachee, on 
the 29th of September. The latest was the specimen (just 
beginning to show signs of the summer plumage) shot on the 
23rd of March at or near Ormarra. 
I know but little of the habits of this species. I found them 
frequenting the vast mud banks of the Kurrachee harbour, in 
company with Stints, Snippets, Curlew, Whimbrel, Shore 
and Grey Plovers, Oyster-catchers, and the like. They fed 
scattered about amongst a crowd of these other species, but, 
on being disturbed, rose and flew off in flock of from six of 
seven to twenty. They were often in large numbers, say 
as many as a hundred feeding on the same bank, but they 
flew off in different directions in comparatively small parties. 
They were excessively wary, and the few specimens (six) 
that I obtained, were all chance hits at seventy or eighty yards 
and upwards, with large shot and wire cartridges out of a 
heavy gun. 
They rise more easily and rapidly than their larger congeners 
but their flight is less rapid though equally direct. Winged birds 
falling into the water swim well, jerking the head and neck 
forward at each stroke. Their call, even less frequently heard 
than that of the black-tailed species, is a rather low, piping note. 
So far as our experience here extends, they are essentially 
coast birds, frequenting banks in harbours, bays, and the tidal 
estuaries of large rivers. Common as they are in places along 
the Sindh coast, they have never yet been observed any 
distance inland. 
The few birds I examined had fed chiefly on tiny shrimp- 
like things, small mollusca, sand worms and insects, but most of 
their stomachs contained matter that I took to be minute 
acephale, or jelly fish. I found no vegetable matter in any of 
their gizzards, and the flesh of two or three that we cooked, 
hoping to find them as good as the other species, was by no 
means well flavoured. It was not fishy, but it had a faint, 
froggy, flavour, and reminded me of that of eels caught in 
muddy broads and dykes at home, 
