Great numbers of these birds visit England both during their spring and autumnal migrations, but they have never been known to breed in our island, though some few remain throughout the winter. In Holland and the level parts of France they are far more common, and are annually killed in great numbers for the London market. The Red Godwits are usually met with in small parties, and generally occupy the muddy banks of river mouths or the oozy shores of sea inlets, as such spots afford a rich supply of the worms, small molluscs, and aquatic animals upon which they subsist. In April the males acquire their full beauty of plumage, and at once retire as far north as Iceland, Lapland, and Sweden to breed. Upon the wing their movements are powerful, though not very rapid. If disturbed they utter a cry somewhat resembling the bleat of a goat. We are almost entirely without reliable particulars respecting the incubation of this bird. THE BLACK-WINGED STILT. The BLACK-WINGED STILT (_Hypsibates himantopus_, or _Himantopus melanopterus_) has a small slight body, slender neck, moderate-sized head, and a long, weak, straight bill, which is broad and soft at its base, rounded at the culmen, and curved at its slender tip; the high, weak, and unusually long foot is unfeathered, and furnished with three toes; these are connected by a short skin, and armed with small, slender, sharp claws. The long, pointed wings have the first quill very considerably longer than the rest; the medium-sized tail is composed of twelve feathers. The short compact plumage, which is of an almost fur-like texture on the under side, varies much in appearance, according to the season or age of the bird. In spring, the back of the head, the nape, and a narrow stripe across the mantle are black, the latter is shaded with green; the tail is ash-grey; and the rest of the plumage white, delicately tinted with rose-red on the fore parts of the body. In the female the hues are less clearly defined, and the white less pure; the tail is lustreless, and the dark stripe on the nape paler but broader than in the male bird. In winter the head and nape are of a greyish shade. The young have the under side greyish white, the nape grey marked with white, and the shoulder-feathers grey. In all the eye is of a beautiful carmine-red; the beak black, and the foot pale carmine or rose-red. This species is fourteen inches and a half long, and twenty-seven broad; the wing measures nine and the tail three inches.