Terekia cinerea, with the up-curved beak of a Greenshank, but the habits and eggs of the last genus, breeds from Archangel eastward to the Pacific, leaving these haunts for the Indian Region to winter, when it is also found in South Africa and Australia. It is grey and black above, with white on the secondaries, and black scapulars, and white below streaked with dusky.
Micropalama himantopus, the long-legged Stilt-Sandpiper, inhabits the extreme North-East of America, migrating to Peru and Argentina. It has black, rufous, and greyish-white upper parts, white tail-coverts, and under parts with blackish bars; in winter the back is grey, while the bars nearly disappear beneath. The habits, nest, and eggs are much as in other Sandpipers.
The Godwits (Limosa) have long legs and bills, the latter being slightly up-curved. L. belgica, the Black-tailed Godwit, nested regularly, up to about 1824, in the eastern counties of England, and, like the Ruff, was netted for eating. It now breeds from Iceland, the Färoes, and Holland to Siberia and Amurland, the smaller eastern form being sometimes denominated L. melanuroïdes; the winter range reaches to the Atlantic Islands, Abyssinia, Ceylon, the Malay Islands, Japan, Australia, and Polynesia.
The breeding plumage is reddish-brown and black above, with rufous crown, neck, and breast, marked with dusky; the rump and terminal portion of the tail are black, the basal portion, tail-coverts, alar bar, and belly white: in winter the upper parts are brownish, the lower grey. The American representative, L. hudsonica, occupies the barren grounds of the north, and migrates to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands; it has black instead of nearly white axillaries. Though rarer in Britain than the succeeding species during the passage in autumn and spring, small flocks of fairly tame Black-tailed Godwits then frequent our muddy shores and sands–especially in the south; the summer note, or yelp, is louder than the winter cry. Four elongated pear-shaped eggs, of a dull olive shade with brown markings, are deposited in a slightly lined hollow in some grassy marsh. The males of Godwits constantly incubate. L. lapponica, the shorter-legged Bar-tailed Godwit, inhabits the countries from Finmark eastward to about the Taimyr Peninsula, where it meets the race L. uropygialis, which extends to Alaska. The western form migrates to the Gambia, Somaliland and North India, the eastern through Japan and China to the Malay Archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, rarely occurring in south-western North America. In summer the mantle is rufous-brown and black, the head and under parts are chestnut, with dark markings from the crown to the sides, the rump is white with a few dusky streaks, the tail and axillaries are white barred with brown: in winter the upper surface is chiefly grey, and the lower white. L. uropygialis has the rump also barred. The nest of the Bar-tailed Godwit is usually in comparatively dry spots, or even on forest-clearings, the eggs being brighter green and more finely marked than those of the Black-tailed species. L. fedoa, the Marbled Godwit of northern North America, which winters southwards to Central America and the West Indies, is distinguished by its large size and buff axillaries.
The almost cosmopolitan genus Numenius is remarkable for its prolonged decurved bill, and its elongated legs. N. arquata, the Curlew or Whaup, breeds freely on the moorlands of Britain, and extends throughout Northern Europe and Asia to Lake Baikal; after breeding it visits the Atlantic Islands, the whole of Africa, and the Indian Region.
Fig. 59.–Curlew. Numenius arquata. × ⅕.
The plumage is pale brown with darker streaks, the rump, tail, and axillaries being white, and the two latter barred with dark brown; the belly is white, the breast nearly so in winter. Found on our shores from autumn to spring, its wary habits are as well-known as its wild rippling note; the food consists of insects, worms, berries, and so forth; while four large pear-shaped olive-and-brown eggs are deposited in an ample depression formed on boggy or heathery ground. N. cyanopus, a distinct East Siberian form, met with in Australia and occasionally from New Guinea to Borneo in winter, has the rump-region brown and black. N. tenuirostris, of the Mediterranean and South Russia, resembles the Curlew, but is much smaller; N. longirostris of temperate North America, migrating to Central America and the Antilles, has cinnamon axillaries–like all the New World members of the genus–and a dark rump. The remaining species, or Whimbrels, have a pale central streak down the crown, less distinct in N. borealis, the Eskimo Curlew, which has rufous axillaries barred with brown, and a rump like the back. This bird wanders to Britain, but breeds in the extreme north of America, and in winter reaches the south of that Continent. N. phaeopus, the typical Whimbrel or May-bird, nests in the Shetlands and perhaps still in the Orkneys and North Ronay in the Hebrides; in summer it takes the place of the Curlew in the Färoes and Iceland, strays to Greenland, and occupies Northern Europe and Asia; while it visits the Azores, the whole of Africa, the Indian Region, and Australia in winter. Specimens from Eastern Asia, with more streaked rumps, have been separated as N. variegatus. In general plumage and habits the Whimbrel resembles the Curlew; it is, however, much smaller, the cry consists of sharper and more quickly repeated notes, and the parents, though anxious, are less shy at the nest. They often descend in a gyrating fashion, closing one wing. N. hudsonicus, of Arctic North America, which winters throughout South America, and has once occurred in Spain, resembles N. borealis in its cinnamon axillaries, but is larger and less ruddy beneath. N. tahitiensis, common in the Pacific Islands, and probably breeding in Alaska, is recognisable by the bristly-pointed flank-feathers; N. minutus, ranging from East Siberia in summer to the Malay Islands and Australia in winter, has the back of the metatarsus as well as the front scutellated.
Sub-fam. 3. Scolopacinae.–Macrorhamphus griseus, the Dowitcher, breeding in the extreme north of North America, and its larger and brighter western race, M. scolopaceus, are rufous birds with darker variegations, the lower back and tail being white, but the latter and its upper coverts shewing blackish barring. The bill is widened towards the tip, while in winter the plumage is grey and white. One form or the other has strayed to Britain, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia, the range on migration reaching Brazil and Chili. The habits resemble those of Redshanks. M. taczanowskii, with black-mottled rump, occupies East Siberia, and winters in India, Borneo, and thence to China.
Scolopax rusticula, the well-known Woodcock, brown, grey, and buff in colour, with blackish vermiculations and blotches above and bars below, has two transverse buff stripes on the black hind-crown. It inhabits Northern and Central Europe and Asia–with the Atlantic Islands and Japan–and migrates to the Mediterranean, Persia, India, Ceylon, and China, or even strays to eastern North America. Breeding freely in Britain, where large additional flocks arrive in autumn, it frequents leaf-strewn woods in which marshy spots or rivulets alternate with dry ground; the food consists of worms, small molluscs and insects, the first being obtained by probing the soil with the long sensitive beak. The flight is rapid and steady, the note–not uttered when flushed–is whistling; while during incubation a curious habit prevails among the cocks of "roading" or traversing fixed routes at twilight, and uttering hoarse notes. The nest is a depression, usually lined with dry leaves; the four eggs, much larger and rounder than those of the Snipe, are creamy-buff with pale brown, grey, and lilac markings. The young are often carried by the parents between their thighs, the bill probably aiding to steady them. Woodcocks are now seldom snared or netted in England. S. saturata of Java and North-West New Guinea is a darker bird with almost uniform black primaries, and a white abdomen with dusky bars. S. rochusseni of the Moluccas has partly bare tibiae, like many Snipe, and a nearly plain buff breast. The Woodcock of eastern North America is Philohela minor, which has the three outer primaries curiously attenuated.