BOARD OF GAME AND FISH COMMISSIONERS 
81 
MARBLED GOD WIT; MARLIN. When the writer, in company witli Frank¬ 
lin Benner, went to Grant and Traverse counties in June, 1879, to study the wild 
life of that region, the great Marbled Godwit was so abundant, so constant 
and insistent in its attentions to the traveler on the prairie and so noisy that it 
became at times an actual nuisance. The following extract from the diary kept 
at the time will illustrate the conditions encountered: “June 9, 1879. On the low 
ground along the Mustinka River, several miles west of Herman, where we went 
to look for the site of the pelicanry of last year, there were a great many Marbled 
Godwits. They were continually hovering about the team, perfectly fearless and 
nearly deafening us with their loud, harsh cries— ‘go-wit, go-wit.’ On getting 
out of the wagon to search for their nests, the birds became fairly frantic until 
we were fain to stop our ears to shut out the din. Now and then the birds would 
all disappear and peace would ensue for a brief period, but they had only retired 
to muster their forces anew, for shortly a great company would bear down upon 
us, flying low over the prairie, and spread out in wide array, all the birds silent, 
until, when almost upon us, they swerved suddenly upward over our heads and 
oroke out again in a wild, discordant clamor. Once I counted fiftv hirds in one 
of these charging companies.” This, to us, novel experience, went on from day 
to day in various places and has left a vivid impression that can never be 
effaced. Happenings of this sort have long since become things of the past in 
Minnesota. The Godwits gradually disappeared before conditions associated with 
the advance of man into their domain until now it is doubtful that more than an 
occasional pair remains to nest in some remote part of the state. Dr. Hatch says 
that in the early days they were common in the fall on the Fort Snelling prairie. 
The last known record for the eastern part of the state is of a bird taken near 
Minneapolis by R. S. Williams on June 19, 1878, a date that suggests, in the case 
of this summer resident species, that it may have been nesting. They were numer¬ 
ous in Marshall County, June 21-26, 1897 (Gleason), and were still well repre¬ 
sented among the Waders at Mud Lake in the eastern part of that county, June 
12-23, 1901 (Dart). 
Godwits are said to be good eating. Their fearless nature and gregarious 
habits make them an easy prey for hunters. They are still common in some regions 
farther west, but only rigorous protection will save such a conspicuous game bird 
from extinction. 
With their long, up-curved bills they probe the shallow water of sloughs and 
lake shores for aquatic insects and mollusks and also spend much of their time 
on meadows and low-lying prairies where they devour grasshoppers and other 
insects of many kinds. These big birds, when they were as abundant as they 
once were, must have been an important factor in keeping in check the dangerous 
insect hordes of our state. But they, with others of their kind, are gone and 
man is left to fight conditions as he must with agencies of his own devising, less 
efficient, perhaps, than those provided by nature. 
HUDSONIAN GODWIT; RING-TAILED MARLIN. A rare migrant in 
Minnesota, but flocks of considerable size were formerly encountered occasionally. 
So far as all records known to the writer are concerned, it has been met with 
here only in the spring. Dr. Hatch states that he never met with it in the field 
and gives no information of value. Cantwell found it “fairly common” in Lac qui 
Parle County in May, 1889, and collected specimens. May 20-21, 1893, the writer 
