176 
British Birds. 
The Bar-tailed Godwit is told at all ages by the distinct bands on the upper tail- 
coverts and tail. The female never has quite as much rufous colour on the breast as 
the male. The species is only known as a migrant in Great Britain, and it breeds in 
the marshes of Northern Europe from Finland to the Yenesei River, in Siberia. 
On their way north in spring, the birds feed on the mud-flats of our tidal harbours, 
and when the sea covers the latter, they retire inland to rest. In the autumn 
they come in small flocks and frequent the mud-flats before going south. The 
nest is merely a depression in the moss with a few dry leaves for a lining, and 
the eggs are four in number, olive or olive-brown in colour, sparsely marked 
with light brown and purplish grey spots and blotches. Their length is from 
two to two-and-a-quarter inches. 
The Black-tailed Godwit. 
The Bar-tailed Godwit. 
THE 
BLACK-TAILED 
GODWIT. 
(Liiiiosa limosa.) 
This Godwit is easily to be told from the foregoing species 
by the black terminal band on the tail. The rufous colour on the 
under surface is not so universally distributed as in the Bar-tailed 
Godwit, especially in the female. The Black-tailed Godwit used 
formerly to breed in the fen-lands of the eastern counties of 
England, but is now only a visitor on migration. It nests still in Central Europe, 
and is to be found in the breeding-season in Holland and the countries of the Baltic 
Sea. In habits it resembles the foregoing species, and the nest is a depression 
in the moss, the eggs being four in number, and resembling those of the Bar- 
tailed Godwit, but they are occasionally darker than those of the latter species ; 
their length is from two to two-and-a-half inches. 
