264 
PRJ5C0CIAL G-RALLATORE8 — LIMICOLJE. 
elongated inner secondaries dark brown, edged with rufous-buff, and notched with rufous ; greater 
wing-coverts dull earthy gray, broadly tipped with white ; median and smaller coverts dull brown, 
edged and tipped with grayish buff ; chin dirty white ; sides of head, neck, and breast dark buff ; 
flanks washed with buff” (Sharpe & Dresser). Downy young: “Rusty yellow, marked with 
black, especially on crown and rump ; a narrow streak through the eye, wing-joints, cheeks, and 
belly, light yellowish” (Sharpe & Dresser). 
Wing, 8.00-9.80 ; culmen, 3.70-4.95; tarsus, 2.80-3.80; middle toe, 2.00-2.12. 
The Black-tailed Godwit claims a place in the fauna of North America only as an 
accidental visitant of Greenland. It is an inhabitant of the Old World, breeding 
only in the more northern portions, but not within high Arctic regions. It is almost 
exclusively migratory in Great Britain and Ireland, though a few remain there each 
year and breed. 
In England, according to Yarrell, it is most frequently seen in the spring and fall, 
the first-comers being adult birds on their way to their breeding-grounds in high 
northern latitudes. In the autumn it is more abundant than in the spring, on account 
of the large number of young birds of the year going south, for the first time, to their 
winter-quarters. A few were still known to resort to the marshes of Norfolk and to 
the fens of Lincolnshire ; but these are very rarely permitted to breed unmolested, as 
the large size, as well as the peculiar action, of this bird when it is breeding, are sure 
to attract the notice both of the sportsman and the egger. Yarrell was informed in 
1855, by the Bev. Bichard Lubbock, that this Godwit still breeds occasionally in some 
of the Norfolk marshes, returning to the same locality year after year, and being 
found in only two or three situations. 
In its flight during the breeding-season it is said to resemble the Totanus calidris 
of Europe ; and like that bird it flies, when breeding, around the head of any intruder 
in the marsh, but in more distant circles, and at a much greater height in the air. It 
is known in the rural districts of -England by the local name of “ Shrieker ; ” but in 
Yarrell’s opinion it does not deserve the name, for its note, though loud, is very far 
from being inharmonious. It is said to be becoming more and more rare each year in 
the breeding-season. Its food consists of insects and their larvae, worms, snails, and 
various other soft-bodied animals. If disturbed when breeding, it is said to be 
very clamorous, flying round and uttering a cry which is thought to resemble the 
syllables grutto-grutto-grutto ; and by this name it is known by the country folk of 
Holland. According to Thompson, this bird is seen occasionally in Ireland, and only 
in the autumn. Examples of it have been obtained in Devonshire, and others at Car- 
lington in Bedfordshire; and Yarrell was informed by Mr. Bond that several speci- 
mens have been known to make their appearance in the vicinity of Kingsbury 
Beservoir, a large sheet of water a few miles north of London. Specimens are also 
