480 BIRDS—SCOLOPACIDZ. 
Limosa FEDOA (L.) Ord. 
Great Marbled Godwit- 
Limosa fedoa, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 165, 185; Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts, 
xl., 1841, 24.—WueEaATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 369, 378; Reprint, 1861, 11, 19; 
Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 572; Reprint, 1875, 12.—LANGDON, 
Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15; Revised List, Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 182; 
Reprint, 16. 
Great Marbled Godwit, KIRTLAND, Fam. Visitor, i, 1650, 164. 
Scolopax fedoa, LINNAUS, Syst. Nat., 1, 1766, 224. 
Limosa fedoa, ORD, ed. Wils., vii, 1825. 
Tail barred throughout with black and rufous, ramp and upper tail-coverts like the 
back; no pure white anywhere. General plumage rufous or cinnamon-brown; below, 
nearly unmarked and of very variable shade, usually deepest on the lining of the wing; 
above, variegated with black and brown or gray; quills rufous and black; bill flesh- 
colored, largely tipped with black; feet dark. Large; length, 16-22; wing, about 9; 
tail, about 34; bill, 4-55 tibia bare 1-14; tarsus, 24-34; toes, 14, stout. 
Habitat, entire temperate North America; Central and South America. Breeds in the 
Missouri and Upper Mississippi regions, and thence to the Saskatchewan. Winters in 
Southern States and southward. . 
Not common spring and fall migrant. Dr. Kirtland notes its capture 
in several instances in Northern Ohio, in addition to that mentioned on 
page 220, and in connection with the Glossy Ibis following. Mr. Langdon 
states, on the authority of Mr. Dury, that thirty-three were “shot in one 
day, near the mouth of the Little Miami, some years ago by Charles 
Weeks, Esq.” A specimen was taken by a sonof Dr. Jasper in the 
immediate vicinity of this city, April 21, 1879. 
Dr. Coues says (Birds N. W., p. 498): 
‘‘ Comparatively little has been learned of the breeding resorts and habits of this God- 
wit, though it is such a common and generally distributed bird during its migrations 
and in winter. Audubon surmises that it may breed in South Carolina and perhaps in 
Texas, where, as Mr. Dresser found it in summer, it probably does. Occuring in abun- 
dance along most of the Atlantic coast, it nevertheless appears less common north of 
Massachusetts, and has not, it would appear, been observed much, if any beyond New 
England in that longitude, The centre of its abundance in summer, and its main breed- 
ing ground, is, apparently, the Northern Mississippi and Eastern Missouri regions, and 
thence to the Saskatchewan ; for, unlike its relative (ZL. hudsonica), 1t does not proceed 
very far north to nest. It breeds in Iowa, and in Minnesota and Eastern Dakota, 
where I observed it in June, and where the eggs have been procured. I found it on the 
plains berdering the Red River, in company with Long-billed Curlews and great num- 
bers of the Bartramian Sandpipers, nesting, like these species, on the prairie near the 
river and about the adjoining pools, but not necessarily by the water’s edge. In its habits 
at this season if most nearly resembles the Curlew, and the two species, of much the 
same size and general appearance, might be readily mistaken at a distance where the 
difference in the bill might not be perceived. On intrusion near the nest, the birds 
s 
