GREAT MARBLED GODWIT. 
31 
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 color ; 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 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 color, 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 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 gene- 
rally 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 marslies ; and are rarely 
found in countries remote from the sea. 
B. M ErmUABT, 
West Pa., 
Jfcrt to he on vny Condit ' 
