226 
SCOLOPACIDiE. 
godwit. It is occasionally obtained inland in the autumn : one 
was shot at Lough Beg (adjoining Lough Neagh), about the 1st 
of September, 1886 and in the last week of August 1841, 
another fell to a snipe-shooter, in marshy ground near Belfast. 
I have seen one, which was killed from a flock near Portumna, on 
the river Shannon, in April 1836. The black-tailed godwit has 
been shot at Portmarnock on the Dublin coast : — at the end of 
September 1840, many of these birds, along with ruffs, were 
brought (but whence was not communicated) to the metropolis 
for sale. In the first week of November, and at other times, a 
few have been met with on the coast of Wexford. On that of 
Waterford,! too, they have occurred, and have been observed, 
though rarely in autumn, at Tough al.{ They are said to be not 
uncommon about the month of December, in Cork Harbour, where, 
on the 2nd of November, 1847, six were killed at a shot : — in 
September, the adult bird has been obtained there.'’^|| In the 
winter of 1840, and again in that of 1847-48, two specimens 
were procured on the coast of Kerry.^ 
Great confusion has been caused by this bird having been called 
red godwit by some British authors, while the common one is the 
Limosa rufa ; but the barred tail of the latter, and the black tail 
of the former, are sufficient to indicate the respective species. 
The Limosa melanura is an interesting bird in captivity. During 
visits to the Gardens of the Zoological Society, BegenPs Park, 
London, in May and June 1849, the sight of eleven of these 
birds, which are kept along with other graUatorial species, in one 
of the inclosures, always gratified me. The first day I saw them 
was very warm. They were all standing in the same position, on 
one leg, with the other tucked up so as to be wholly invisible, the 
bill buried in the feathers, and the eyes closed. The next day 
that I went was equally fine, and the hour of my visit the same ; 
but they were all actively stirring about and caUing, as if on the 
* A coleopterous insect, half an inch in length, was found in its stomach. In that 
of others the minute uuivalve shell Faludina muriatica, Lam., has been observed. 
t Mr. Poole and Dr. R. J. Burldtt. ^ Mr. R. Ball. 
II Mr. Wm. Crawford to Dr. Harvey. ^ Mr. R. Chute. 
