IJAR-TAl LED GOD WIT. 
LIMOSA RUFA. 
Vi ITH the exception of tlie hciglit of summer, when hut few stragglers remain in Great Britian, tlie Bar- 
tailed Godwit is to be found at all seasons in more or less abundance wherever mudflats or an open coast- 
line afford a sufficient stretch of uninterrupted feeding-ground. At various times I met with this species 
in large numbers on the shores of several of the Scotch firths from Dornoch to Dunbar, again in a few 
instances on the mnds and rocky islands off the coast of Northumberland and on numberless spots on 
the flat shores of the southern and eastern counties of England. So far as my own experience goes, 
this V ader is far from common on the coast of the Western Highlands. On one occasion I noticed two 
or three small parties flying over the Minch in the beginning of May, and a flock numbering from 
fifteen to twenty on the shores of Loch Broom. 
If all the yarns of the old Breydon fowlers arc to bo credited, these birds must in days gone by 
have visited the mudflats in that district in countless thousands. An immense body stretching, when 
alighted, in a long line on the south shores over the space between three of the stakes marking the course 
of the navigable channel, was a favourite theme of conversation among these worthies. At the present day 
tlieir numbers have sadly fallen off. I have often spent the whole of May, from daylight almost till 
dark, on the water without seeing more than two or three hundred pass during the month. Along the 
shmgle-hanks of Kent and Sussex, as well as on the Norfolk flats, the arrival of the Godwit was 
formerly eagerly looked forward to by all the shore-gunners of the locality. The sands stretching from 
Bye to Lydd, with the well-known Nook and the creeks in Bomney Marsh, were the spots on” which 
they usually settled in the largest numbers. Eiirtlier west the flats of Shorcham, Goring Banks, Pagham 
Harhour^,. and the extensive muds about Bosham, Emsworth, and Chichester were visited in favourable 
seasons both in spring and autumn. 
^ Though numbers of Godwits remain during winter in Great Britian and are to be met with occasionally 
m all suitable situations from north to soutli, the spring flights of birds tliat have passed the cold weather 
in a warmer climate commence to arrive on the south coast shortly after the beginning of May. A few 
days later the flats of the eastern counties arc thickly tenanted, should the wind continue easterly. A 
c lange of weather and a gale from the west or south-west, however, puts a sudden stop for a time to 
the migration. With cold cutting breezes from the cast or north-east, I have of late years repeatedly seen 
large flocks of Godwits passing along the Sussex coast near Shorcham, from half to a quarter of a mile at 
sea. The birds now appear to prefer drawing in beneath the shelter of the shore and continuing their 
journey further east to settling for a time on the muds they formerly frequented. The flio-ht-time on 
Breydon usually commences about the 8th or 9th of IVIay, the 12th to the 15th being considered the best 
( ays. As on the south coast, light easterly breezes with a slight inclination from either north or south 
» Now drained for many years; and tlie mudflats known as the Nook at live have shared the same fate. 
