322 
GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. 
black ; tail-coverts, white, barred with olive ; bill, pale lead 
colour, becoming black towards the tip ; eye, very black ; chin, 
white ; breast, beautifully mottled with transverse spots of 
olive on a cream ground ; belly and vent, white, the last barred 
with olive ; legs and feet, pale lead colour ; toes, half webbed. 
Towards the fall, when these birds associate in large flocks, 
they become of a pale dun colour above, the plumage being 
shafted with dark brown, and the tail white, or nearly so. At 
this season they are extremely fat, and esteemed excellent 
eating. Experienced gunners always select the lightest 
coloured ones from a flock, as being uniformly the fattest. 
The female of this species is generally larger than the male. 
In the months of October and November, they gradually 
disappear. 
GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. — SCOLOP AX FEDOA. 
Plate LVI. Fig. 4. Female. 
Arct. Zool. p. 465, No. 371. — La barge rousse de Baie d’Hudson, Huff. vii. 507. — 
Peale's Museum , No. 4019. 
LIMOSA FEDOA Vieiixot. 
Limosa fedoa, Orel's edit, of Wils Bonap. Synop. p. 328. 
This is another transient visitant of our sea coasts in spring 
and autumn, to and from its breeding place in the north. Our 
gunners call it the Straight-billed Curlew , and sometimes the 
Red Curlew . It is a shy, cautious, and watchful bird ; yet so 
strongly are they attached to each other, that on wounding 
one in a flock, the rest are immediately arrested in their flight, 
making so many circuits over the spot where it lies fluttering 
and screaming, that the sportsman often makes great destruc- 
tion among them. Like the Curlew, they may also be enticed 
within shot, by imitating their call, or whistle ; but can seldom 
be approached without some such manoeuvre. They are much 
less numerous than the Short-billed Curlews, with whom, 
