i68 
WADING BIRDS. 
HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 
RING-TAILED MARLIN. 
Limosa ha:mastica. 
Char. Upper parts dusky, mottled with buff; head and neck rufous, 
streaked with du.sky , rump dusky ; tail-coverts mostly white ; tail dusky, 
tipped with white ; under parts rich cliestnut, barred with dusky. Length 
14 to i6 inches. , • , 
Nest. Near a stream or lake, — a slight depression, lined with a tew 
leaves or bits of grass. 
Eggs. 3-4 ; grayish olive or hair brown, spotted with darker brown ; 
2.20 X 1-40. 
The Hudsonian, or American Black-tailed Godwit, though 
abundant in the Barren Grounds near the Arctic Sea, where it 
breeds, is an uncommon visitor in the Eastern and Middle 
States of the Union, although, from all analogy and the impos- 
sibility of the species subsisting through the winters of its natal 
regions, we are certain that the whole retire into mild climates 
to pass the winter. They probably, like some other birds of 
the same countries, retire southward by an inland route, or 
even pass the autumn on the shores of the northwestern coast 
of the continent. Be this as it may, the present bird is among 
our greatest rarities, as I have seldom seen more than two or 
three pair in the course of the season ; these are found on the 
neighboring coast of the Bay, and called by the market people 
of Boston, Goose Birds. I obtained a solitary pair of these 
stragglers about the 8th of September ; they were very fat and 
well flavored, scarcely distinguishable in this respect from the 
Curlew, and appeared to have been feeding on some Ulva or 
other vegetable substance. Several pair of young and old 
birds were brought to market this year (1833), from the 6th 
to the 30th of the same month. An individual now in the 
Philadelphia Museum was shot also near the coast of Cape 
May, in New Jersey, d'hey sometimes associate with the 
Plovers, and descending to the marshes and the strand, feed 
upon minute shell-fish, shrimps, and the roots of the Zostera. 
According to Richardson, they frequent boggy lakes, like the 
