deep, picking small insects off the surface with their long bills ;
or again walking along the water's edge on sands or mud banks,
picking up small shells and shrimps.
Selby says that this species may be " frequently seen wading
tolerably deep in water, immersing the head at intervals anil
searching the deposit beneath." This may be a fact, but I can
only say that I have often watched this species, and yet have
never noticed that it immersed the head.
They are not birds that court concealment, They are often,
when in ones or twos, difficult enough to get near, but they are
usually easy enough to see, as they always, or almost always,
keep out in the open, whether they be walking or wading, or
asleep on one leg in water just up to their breasts, and their
necks, heads, and long bills nestled into their backs.
On land, where a large party is feeding, they alternately
stalk about with much dignity, and make rapid and easy little
runs, accompanied often by fluttcrings of the wings to pounce
on some tid-bit. When thus occupied, and in force, they are
at times ridiculously tame, and 1 have stood watching a flock
for several minutes, on a low earthen ridge overlooking
their feeding ground, and within thirty yards of the nearest birds,
without their taking the smallest notice of me. Of course
they arc easy to shoot at such times, and in two shots, fired
at such flocks, whilst I was at the Manchar Lake, twenty-two
were procured at one time, and eighteen the other. This sounds
like very unsportsmanlike butchery, but then they are one
of the very best birds for the table with which India presents
us. They are always nice ; even those that I have shot close
to the sea were entirely free from any unpleasant flavour, while
when really fat and in good condition, well fed on rice, they
are, in my opinion, though very differently flavoured, quite
equal to either Woodcock or Jack, and far superior to Fantail
or even Common Snipe.* Of course they must be properly
cooked, only plucked and cleaned the moment before they are
put to the fire, only cooked just sufficiently and served up
at once. I can't help dwelling upon this because all game is,
as a rule, utterly spoilt in India by our native cooks. First
they pluck and clean birds hours before they are wanted, the
result being that, in the extremely dry atmosphere of Upper
India, the flesh is half-dried up before the cooking commences.
Then the bird, instead of being roasted lightly, is stuck in a
cooking pot and steamed at leisure, at times, for hours, very
often when cooked, taken off and allowed to cool, and always
only taken out to brown for a few minutes, just before being
# Oiu forefathers fully appreciated this bird, which less than one hundred years ago
bredpUntifully in England, and Varrell tells us that—
" Thomas Mullet, that ever famous doctor in physich. as he is called in his title-page,
says in Health's Improvement, page 99. 'but a fat Godwit is so fine and light meat,
that noblemen, yea and merchants too, by your leave, slick not to buy them at four
nobles a dozen.'"
served. Of course, thus treated, even Woodcock are dry and
tasteless.
Though they rise rather clumsily, these Godwit have a
strong, rapid, and very direct flight when well on the wing; and
as they fly rather high, almost out of shot, when passing from
one broad to another, or when coming from or going to their
feeding grounds, they often afford very pretty overhead shots.
When rising or fluttering about feeding, the white wing bar is
very conspicuous, and by this, like the lesser Red-Shanks
( Totanus calidris) they may always be distinguished at a glance.
I cannot remember often hearing this bird utter any sound,
but during the breeding season, at any rate, they are represented
as being very vociferous when their nests are invaded, and at
other seasons they occasionally emit a clear whistled-call repeated
two or three times in rapid succession as they rise. But, as a rule,
I should call them eminently silent birds during the nonbreeding
season.
So FAR as is yet known this species does not breed within
our limits. In Western Europe, although some few may
breed in Iceland, and even well within the Arctic Circle
in Finmark, and again in the Balearic Isles south of the
40th degree North Latitude, its normal breeding zone
seems to be between 500 and 550 North Latitude. In Russia it
breeds nearly as far north as the 60th, and as far south as the
45° North Latitude.
As to their nidification I may quote what has been said of
it in Holland and Poland. Yarrell says : " Mr. Hewitson says
the Black-tailed Godwits commence laying their eggs early in
in May. The nest is composed of dry grass and other vegetables,
and is concealed amongst the coarse herbage of the swamps
and low meadows. Mr. Hoy mentions that, when disturbed, they
are clamorous, flying round and vociferating the cry of gvutto,
grutto, griitto, by which name the bird is known among the
country people in Holland."
Of their nidification in Poland, Taczanowski says: "Usually
they begin breeding early in May, and about the middle of June
young may be found fully fledged. They generally breed in
large societies, in tolerably damp places covered with high, thin
herbage, where there are tussocks or small dry places, but also
in the fields (in scattered pairs or small colonies), and in small
marshes covered with grass and bushes. On the top of a tussock
or dry place they make a depression about three inches deep,
and line it carefully and neatly with dry grass, depositing four
eggs, on which both male and female sit. If a human being
approach their nesting-colony, they meet him when some distance
from it, uttering loud erics, and returning again and again in
larger numbers as he comes nearer to their nests. When he is
amongst the nests, all the birds fly overhead, uttering a conti