LIMOSA MELANURA 
Black-tailed Godwit= 
Scolopax Umosa, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 61. 
Totanus Umosa et rufus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iv. pp. 244, 253. 
Umosa melamra, Leisl. Nacht. zu Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. ii. pp. 150, 157. 
Limicida melamira, Vieili. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. hi. p. 250. 
Scolopax cegocephala, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 246. 
helgica, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., p. 663. 
Totanus agocephalus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl, tom. iv. p. 234. 
Fedoa melanura, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool, vol. xii. p. 73. 
Umosa jadreca, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 32. 
cegocephala, Leach, ibid., p. 34. 
islandica, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl, p. 626. 
In England we have two Godwlts with very distinctive characters, which at a glance may he distinguished 
at any age one from the other; and it would be well if the trivial names of Black-tailed and Bar-tailed and 
the specific ones of melanura and rufa should be always retained for these well-known birds. It will, however, 
be seen by the above list of synonyms that Gmelin called the present species helgica, \ac;ac\\ jadreca, Linnaeus 
and Bechstein cegocephala \ by most modern ornithologists, however, the term melanura is employed ; and I 
accordingly adopt it. 
Where a bird breeds, or has for centuries bred, that country must be regarded as the home of the species ; 
Britain therefore is one of the homes of the Black-tailed Godwit. The Rev. Mr. Lubbock, when speaking 
of the marsh-birds in his ‘Fauna of Norfolk,’ says : — “Five sj)ecies in particular used to swarm in our 
marshes — the Godwit, the Ruff, the Lapwing, the Redshank, and the Black Tern. These last bred in 
countless multitudes in a large alder-carr at Upton, near Acle, and dispersed themselves over the country 
for miles, while the Redshank in the breeding-season flew dashing around the head of any intruders on his 
territories, and endeavoured, like a Lapwing, to mislead strangers from the nest ; higher in the air and flying- 
in holder circles, uttering a louder note was the Black-tailed Godwit, called provincially ‘ the Shrieker,’ 
from its piercing cries. The bird is now almost e.xtinct in this part of Norfolk ; it used to breed at Buck- 
enham, Thyme, Horsey, and one or two other places.” Lubbock’s book was published in 1845; the interval 
that has since elapsed has not, as might have been expected, enabled other writers to add to the list of the 
breeding-places of the birds spoken of ; and if either of them have bred in the localities mentioned it is 
certainly not the Black-tailed Godwit, the draining of the meres and the increase of the gunners preventing 
it from continuing to do so. 
Whether associations be handed down among birds as among human beings, we know not ; but, although 
the Godwit is no longer permitted to breed in the marshy districts of our eastern coast, it as regularly pays 
them a visit as the season runs round, and the bird is accordingly frequently seen and killed during the 
vernal and autumnal periods of the year in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire. The low shores of all the 
estuaries of England, Scotland, and Ireland having muddy flats are also visited by it. It must still breed in 
Holland; for its eggs form a considerable article of trade between that country and Leadenhall Market, 
where they may frequently be seen in the month of May exposed for sale, like those of the Lapwing, for 
the purposes of the table: their numbers, however, are becoming less and less every year ; and probably the 
time is not far distant when the marshes of Holland and Friesland, like those of England, may not be tenanted 
by the Black-tailed Godwit. 
In Ireland it appears never to breed; for although Thompson states that it now and then occurs there in 
great numbers, he makes no allusion to its nesting. That it speedily becomes habituated to the restraints 
of captivity is certain. “ During my visits to the Gardens of the Zoological Society, in the Regent’s Park, 
London, in May and June 1839,” says Thompson, “the sight of eleven of these birds in one of the in- 
closures 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 he 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 moving about, and calling as if on the sea-shore. They appeared quite happy. It 
was interesting to observe their natural habit of driving the point of the bill into their soft oozy feeding- 
ground, here exemplified by several of them at the same moment probing the layer of straw with which the 
floor of their residence was covered. On my third visit the day was very cold in the shade, and the wind 
easterly. They all had their bills wholly buried in their dorsal plumage, and most of them had their eyes 
