GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. 
323 
however, they not unfrequently associate. They are found 
among the salt marshes in May, and for some time in June, 
and also on their return in October and November; at which 
last season they are usually fat, and in high esteem for the 
table. 
The female of this bird having been described by several 
writers as a distinct species from the male, it has been thought 
proper to figure the former ; the chief difference consists in 
the 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 
inches 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 feathers, which are a little the longest ; wings, 
pale ferruginous, elegantly marbled w T ith 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 
enumerated by naturalists. These are again by some sepa- 
rated into 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 marshes, swamps, and morasses, that frequently 
prevail in the vicinity 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 
