GREAT MARBLED GOD WIT 103 
undulating bars of black with which the breast of the male is 
marked, and which are wanting in the female. 
The male of the Great Marbled Godwit is nineteen inches 
long, and thirty-four inches in extent; the bill is nearly six in- 
ches in length, a little turned up towards the extremity, where 
it is black, the base is of a pale purplish flesh colour; chin and 
upper part of the throat whitish; head and neck mottled with 
dusky brown and black on a ferruginous ground ; breast barred 
with wavy lines of black; back and scapulars black, marbled 
with pale brown; rump and tail-coverts of a very light brown, 
barred with dark brown; tail even; except the two middle fea- 
thers, which are a little the longest; wings pale ferruginous, ele- 
gantly marbled with dark brown, the four first primaries black 
on the outer edge; whole lining and lower parts of the wings 
bright ferruginous; belly and vent light rust colour, with a tinge 
of lake. 
The female differs in wanting the bars of black on the breast. 
The bill does not acquire its full length before the third year. 
About fifty different species of the Scolopax genus are enu- 
merated by naturalists. These are again by some separated in- 
to three classes or sub-genera; viz. the straight-billed, or Snipes; 
those with bills bent downwards, or the Curlews; and those 
whose bills are slightly turned upwards, or Godwits. The whole 
are a shy, timid and solitary tribe, frequenting those vast marsh- 
es, swamps and morasses, that frequently prevail in the vicini- 
ty of the ocean, and on the borders of large rivers. They are 
also generally migratory, on account of the periodical freezing 
of those places in the northern regions where they procure their 
food. The Godwits are particularly fond of salt marshes; and 
are rarely found in countries remote from the sea, ' 
