closed ; but they uevertbeless kept continually calling, without in the least degree changing their attitudes or 
moving the hill from its state of repose. Occasionally two or three would call at the same moment, the ride 
seeming to be that a continuous note was essential. It was amusing to see the vibration of the body of the 
bird when, supported on one leg, the call was uttered with the bill ‘engulfed’ in the plumage of the back. 
A Ruff in the same aviary seemed also quite contented, and displayed the well-known pugnacity of the species 
by striking with its bill any of the Godwits that came within reach. On one of the warm dciys he took pos- 
session for a time of a large shallow pan of water, and would not suffer a Godwit to partake of, or to cool its 
feet in, the liquid.” 
The Black-tailed Godwit is distributed over the whole of Europe, wherever situations suitable to its habits 
occur. In England it is most frequently seen in spring and autumn, during its passage to, and return from, 
its breeding-grounds in high northern latitudes. Mr. Rodd states that it has been killed at the Land’s- 
end, but that it is uncommon in Cornwall ; Macgillivray says it is never very abundant in Scotland ; and 
Thompson that it frequents the coast of Ireland in autumn and winter in very limited numbers. Fabricius 
mentions that he had only seen a single specimen in Greenland ; and Reinhardt that, after his time, but one 
more example had been said to have been obtained there. Mr. Alfred Newton states that, according to Faber, 
it arrives in Iceland during the last week in April, and adds : — “ I do not know that any naturalist has found its 
eggs in Iceland, hut I have little doubt it breeds there. It seems to he rare (if it occurs at all) in the north. 
I obtained a fine pair in the flesh at Reykjavik, towards the end of June.” Wheelright says it is a summer 
visitant to Lapland ; Loche states that it is a bird of passage in Algeria ; Swinhoe informs us that it is “ said 
to he found on lakes and inland marshes in China, whence it is brought to the Tientsin and Shanghai markets 
in winter.” It is probably from Mantchuria that these birds come. Temminck and Schlegel note it from 
Japan. According to Mr. Jerdon it is “ found throughout India during the cold weather, generally in large 
flocks at the edge of water.” 
Mr. Hewitson states that the “ eggs, which are four in number, differ considerably in size and colouring, 
some being of a uniform light olive-brown, and almost spotless, while others have the surface sprinkled with 
small hut distinctly marked spots. Mr. Hoy informed me, in 1836, that on the Continent the nest is composed 
of dry grass and other vegetables, and is concealed amongst the herbage of the low swamps and meadows, 
and that the birds when disturbed are clamorous, flying round the intruder, and vociferating the cry of grutto, 
grntto, grutto, whence they have received their name among the people of Holland.” 
The food of the Black-tailed Godwit consists of insects and their larvae, worms and other soft-hodied 
animals. Great difference exists in the size of the sexes, the female being nearly a third larger than the 
male, and frequently more richly coloured during the months of spring. 
A male killed in April 1867 had the head and neck pale rufous, conspicuously striped with dark brown 
on the head ; back and scapularies rufous, crossed by broad irregular bands of black, the last of which, 
assumed on some of the feathers, the shape of a large blotch ; basal portion of the feathers brownish 
grey ; tij)s of the scapularies white ; wing-coverts dark-greyish brown, with paler margins, approaching to 
white ; greater coverts and wings dark brown, with white shafts, the tips of the coverts and the base of the 
primaries pure white, forming a conspicuous mark when the wing was spread ; most of the lengthened tertiaries 
grey, a few of them dark brown, deeply toothed with tawny, and tipped with grey; lower part of the back 
grey, each feather narrowly fringed with white; rump and upper tail-coverts pure white; tail-feathers white at 
the base, black for the remainder of their length, except at the tip, where they were fringed with greyish white, 
the amount of the black slightly decreasing as the feathers receded from the centre ; breast rufous, barred 
with black and white, which latter gradually increased until the under surface became white, with a few bars 
of dark brown on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; bill yellow at the base, dark brown at the tip ; legs dark 
olive-green. 
In the winter the head and neck are greyish olive-brown, and the back dark olive-brown. As the spring- 
advances, a change of feathers takes place, the brownish olive colouring of the hack giving place to cross 
markings of red and black, and by May the transformation is complete. 
The weight of the female is 13 oz., of the male 10 oz. 
The Plate represents a male and a female of the size of life — the male in change from its olive-brown dress 
to the rufous one of summer, and the female in her usual brown dress. 
