The Whimbrel is a later breeder than the Curlew. During the nesting season it is one of the most local of our birds, and is only known to nest on North Ronay—one of the Hebrides—the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Its favourite breeding-grounds are the wild moors, at no great distance from the sea. Although not gregarious during summer, many pairs often nest on the same portion of the moors. The nest is made upon the ground, sometimes amongst heather, or beneath the shelter of a tuft of grass, and consists of a few bits of withered herbage, arranged carelessly in some slight hollow. The four eggs are very like those of the Curlew, but are much smaller. The bird’s actions at the nest are very similar to those of the preceding species. Outside the British limits, the breeding range of the typical Whimbrel reaches from Iceland and the Faröes, across Arctic Europe, whilst its winter home is in Africa. GODWITS. These birds rank amongst the rarest and most local of the British species of Limicolæ, so that little more than a passing allusion to them is necessary in a work of the present character. One of them, the Black-tailed Godwit, _Limosa melanura_, formerly known as the “Yarwhelp” or “Barker,” used to breed regularly in some of the eastern counties of England, but for nearly fifty years now it has not been known to do so. The reclamation of its fenland haunts, and the practice of netting it during the breeding season, have probably been the chief causes of its extirpation. A few birds still continue to appear on our coasts, especially on the vast mud-flats and salt-marshes of East Anglia, during their annual migrations, and a few remain to winter. Outside our limits it nests in Iceland and the Faröes, and in Scandinavia; but its chief breeding-area extends across Europe, from Holland to the south of Russia. In winter it draws southwards, visiting the Mediterranean basin and parts of Africa. The Black-tailed Godwit appears on the British coasts on passage, during April and May, the return journey beginning in August, and lasting for about a month. In its habits it is very like the Curlew, picking up its food on the muds and marshes, walking deliberately to and fro, wading through the shallows, and sometimes standing in the water breast-high to sleep. Whilst on actual migration it is a restless bird, continually shifting its ground, but later in the year it becomes more settled, and will visit certain spots to feed with great regularity. Its food, whilst on our coasts, consists of insects (especially beetles), worms, crustaceans, and molluscs. Its call-note is a loud and shrill _tyii-it_. This Godwit breeds in May, making a slight nest on the ground, concealed amongst herbage, in which it lays four pyriform eggs, olive-brown, spotted with darker brown and gray.