BLACK-TAILED GODWIT 231 
hardly likely that its occurrences are confined to this tract. 
Except in autumn and early winter I have only once 
observed it (20th December 1903, when I saw a single 
specimen on the sands of Castletown Bay), but Mr. Adams 
had a specimen which was shot about the New Year at 
Langness, and Mr. Baily mentions a pair at the same place 
on 6th April 1889. In Castletown Bay Godwits frequent 
sandy places, where they wade in the shallows, often in 
company with small shore birds, amid the crowd of which 
the size of the few larger birds gives them a comical 
appearance, like a few elders in charge of a party of 
children. Like many species which reach us from high 
northern latitudes, they are far from shy; in general they 
are silent birds, but when disturbed utter in flight a rather 
low harsh note, singly or a few times repeated, difficult to 
imitate in words, but very different from that of any shore- 
bird known to me. I have not seen more than five 
together. 
The Bar-tailed Godwit is fairly common all round 
Ireland, where there are tracts of sand and mud. On the 
Solway, both English and Scottish, it is sometimes abundant, 
and is known also on the bays of Luce and Wigtown. On 
the Lancashire coast it is not generally numerous. It is 
rather scarce in Orkney and Shetland, but occurs sometimes 
plentifully in parts of the Outer Hebrides. 
LIMOSA AtGOCEPHALA (Linn.). BLACK- 
TAILED GODWIT. 
In the Wallace collection was an immature specimen 
labelled as Manx (Macpherson, Zool., 1899, p. 420). A 
few have been obtained in Ireland chiefly in autumn, 
