the codwits. 
315 
Eange in Great Britain.-The Black-taile<l Gockvit is now only 
a migrant to Great Britain, occurring more or less locally on a 
oJSiand appearing principally i,, our 
conntica. It still breeds in Holland and used >» Jo so in 
England less than fifty years ago. ihe fens of 
Srd the Isle of Ely were its habitat, and one of the last 
recorded nests was taken in Norfolk in 1847. 
Eange outside the British Islands.-From Belgium and Holland 
to Northern Germany, Poltmd, and Silesia, the present spec cs 
nests, as well as in Scandinavia up to 65 N- l^t. It als 
breeds in the Fieroes, and in the south-east of Iceland. It 
ranges to Western Siberia as far as the valley of pi*’ 
migrates south in winter to North-western India. At the same 
tinm of year it visits the Mediterranean, and also North-eastern 
^VfnCti 
Hahits — The traveller by the train from Rotterdam to Am- 
sterdam' in May may often see Black-tailed Godwits standing 
in pairs by the muddy dykes, taking no notice of the rushing 
locomotive, and placidly standing on one leg f 
the water or dozing, with the bill tucked under the shoulder- 
E,h”f ' Like thf; or .he 
difficult to find, as related by Seebohrii in his ° 
British Birds,” where he tells of the toils of searching for the 
S in the marshes of Jutland. Mr. A. C. Chapman has 
given a vivid account of the finding of the nests of the Black- 
tailed Godwit in West Jutland by his brother, Mr. Abel Chap- 
mam and himself. He writes ;-“The manshes, as distinct 
from the islets and salt-grass promontories, are areas of squashy 
moss, grass, rush, and bog-plants, difficult, if not dangerous, 
rc explore ; but in most cases there are creeks of water which 
intersect these marshes in various directions, and enable a 
flat-bottomed boat to be pushed about, so as to give access to 
their interiors. Then it becomes necessary, m the search tor 
errcTS to traverse on foot their squashy surfaces, where, at every 
the ground quakes for yards around m a most unpleasarit 
fashion, and the water oozes out of the moss well over ones 
boot-tops. Such are the places most loved by the Black-tailed 
Godwit, and, on approaching, tte wailing cry wil soon e 
followed by the note of a bird high m air. That bird has 
