in England. I quote from Sir Thomas Browne and, on 

 the authority of Yarrell, from Ben Jonson to this effect. 

 Nowadays the Black-tailed Godwit is only known in 

 our country as a bird of double passage, and by no 

 means a very common one, although within the memory 

 of man it not only bred, but was regularly netted and 

 fattened for the table by the Ruff- and Plover-netters of 

 Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. 



This bird still frequents and breeds in some of the 

 marshes of the Netherlands, whence a few are sent 

 annually alive to the London markets in April and 

 May. The nests are said to be generally well con- 

 cealed amongst the herbage of the marsh-lands. The 

 eggs are four in number, of a dull green spotted and 

 blotched with brown, and are pear-shaped. I have 

 frequently found these eggs in Leadenhall Market 

 amongst those of many other marsh-birds from Holland, 

 and the few that I have had hard-boiled were quite 

 equal, if not superior, in flavour to those of the Peewit. 

 The Black-tailed Godvvits that I have seen in their 

 natural condition, at liberty in England, might certainly 

 be reckoned on my fingers ; but in the early months of 

 spring T have seen very large numbers of these birds in 

 Southern Spain, a few on the shores of Epirus, and 

 here and there in other parts of the Mediterranean 

 shores. In Spain we found these Godwits exceedingly 

 wary, and it was only by the aid of one of the wonder- 

 fully trained native horses, or that of a wild Falcon, 

 that we brought any of them to bag. 



To the Falcon, Peregrine, and possibly Lanner, this 

 species seems to present special delight, -and we often 



