a short time on the hroatls and inland waters. Unlike the Blaek-tailed Godwit, winch makes, or rather did 
make, breeding-places of those localities, the present bird passes them by and proceeds to the higher 
latitudes of Lapland, Siberia, and Russia, in which a few solitary nests have been found ; these localities, 
however, are, I am sure, merely the outskirts of its summer quarters. To justify this assertion, and to show 
that the outskirts oidy of their breeding-grounds have been entered on, I may state that I have at this moment 
before me the sale-list of the duplicate eggs from Mr. Wolley’s collection, in which it is recorded that four 
pounds were given tor one egg of this bird, and five pounds for another, — prices which must surely he 
considered enormous, and which clearly indicate that the most persevering oologist has not yet visited the 
bird’s true breeding-quarters. 
riie Bar-tailed Godwit has two distinct lines of migration — a western one through Europe to Africa, and 
an eastern from China, through the Philippines, and across the line to Australia, — the grccit peninsula of 
India, and probably Burmah, forming a kind of neutral ground wherein it is seldom seen — so rarely, indeed, 
that Mr. Jerdon does not include it in his ‘Birds of India,’ although Mr. Blyth says that, “as a species 
occurring rarely in the Himalaya, it must be added to the Indian list.” The immense range of the Himalaya 
Mountains, as w’e all know, are backed by almost interminable deserts of high land, forming a barrier over 
which either the Godwit or any other southern migrant would seldom attempt to pass. 
“ Eggs said to be those of the Bar-tailed Godwit,” says Mr. Hewitson, “ were brought from the North 
by the Rev. J. B. rristram and also by Mr. Wolley, and with evidence sufficient to justify me in figuring 
them. The Bar-tailed Godwit was seen close to the eggs ; the Black-tailed Godwit was never seen at all.” 
Mr. Tristram, referring to the Bar-tailed Godwit, says; — “I found the bird in Finmark, and shot several 
specimens in breeding-plumage, without any trace whatever of the black tail ; I got the nest, and shot 
the bird, a female, the same morning, close to the spot, but I did not flush her off the nest. Mr. 
Wolley’s eggs corresponded so exactly with mine that we could not distinguish them ; hut they were at 
once to he recognized among twenty eggs of the common Godwit. I have no moral doubt whatever 
on the subject, though my evidence does not amount to absolute demonstration.” Mr. Wolley says this 
species breeds in marshes, chiefly in the neighbourhood of mountains, and that it gets up so warily from 
its nest that it is difficult to find it. The eggs figured are from Rowa, near Kittila, in Finland ; I cannot, 
however, with Mr. Tristram, see anything about them to distinguish them from eggs of the other species ; 
their close resemblance was to be expected. 
“ Dr. Middendorff, Avho met with this species breeding in numbers on the river Taimyr, in Lapland, says 
that it was not easy to find the eggs, as the birds would leave their nests with loud cries when he was at a 
great distance from them. The eggs are found at the end of June, two or three in a nest.” — Col. III. 
Eggs of Brit. Birds, vol. ii. 
“That the Bar-tailed Godwit breeds in the neighbourhood of Quickiock, in Lapland,” remarks Mr. 
Wheelwright, “ is pretty certain, although I never found the nest ; but I fancy that although both the Godwits 
may breed here and there, in Lapland they principally do so more to the east. Both species are summer 
visitants around Vardol, in Finland. Sommerfelt however, has, never known the egg of the Bar-tailed to he 
taken there, although it breeds near Enara.” 
Speaking of the flight of the Bar-tailed Godwits, MacGillivray says it is “ moderately rapid, light, 
somewhat buoyant, and greatly resembles that of the Curlew, and especially the Whimbrel. They emit a 
loud shrill whistle, and on rising utter a lower modulated sound somewhat like that of the bird just 
mentioned. Walking for the most part sedately, but sometimes running, they tap and probe the mud and 
sands in search of worms and other small animals, frequently mingling with Sandpipers and Ring-Plov'ers, 
along with which they often repose on the sands and neighbouring pastures at high water.” 
The number of Godwits that appear in different years varies greatly — but few in some, and many in others ; 
generally speaking, too, the numbers that are seen in spring are much less than in autumn. 
The sexes, like those of the allied species, differ very considerably in size, the female being by far the 
largest of the two. 
The Plate represents the male in his spring dress, and the female in winter, of the size of life. 
