LIMOSA LIMOSA LIMOSA (Linnaeus)
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT
Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain
HABITS
The only claim this species has to a place in the North American fauna rests upon its accidental occurrence in Greenland, where it is said to have occurred twice. There is, however, an element of doubt about the records. The first is due to Fabricius, who states in his Fauna Greenlandica that he had seen a single specimen; the next occurrence is said to have taken place near Godthaab, or if Holböll's reference is to the same specimen, at the Kok Islands near Godthaab, and was recorded by Reinhardt, senior, in 1824. The skin was sent to the Museum at Copenhagen, but Dr. J. Reinhardt, junior, was unable to find it there, as he states in the Ibis 1861, page 11. Winge pertinently suggests that there may have been some confusion with Limosa haemastica, of which species several specimens were sent to Copenhagen from Greenland, including one from Godthaab, sent by Holböll. The distance from Iceland to Greenland is not very great, but one would expect stragglers from that direction to arrive on the east side of Greenland instead of on the west side, where the great majority of accidental visitors are of Nearctic origin.
Spring.—Fortunately we are now in possession of fairly full and complete descriptions of the courtship activities of this species on the arrival at its breeding grounds in Holland (Huxley and Montague 1926). Here it appears during the last days of March; in 1925 the first arrival took place on March 25, but up to March 31 a large proportion of the breeding stock had not yet put in an appearance. It is, however, interesting to note that many of the birds were not only on their breeding territories, but were obviously in pairs, although some unmated birds were also present and small flocks of newly arrived birds were also met with. Evidently the males do not migrate in advance of the females in order to "stake out their claims," as is the case with certain other species.
In the British Isles, where the black-tailed godwit has long ceased to breed, it is now only an irregular passage migrant chiefly from mid April to mid June, in small numbers along the south and southeast coasts. The Iceland breeding birds, however, pass through Ireland on their way north and reach their destination during the latter half of April or early in May in small flocks, but in these northern latitudes the breeding season is naturally later than in Central Europe and the eggs are not laid till late in May.
Courtship.—This is dealt with by Huxley and Montague (1926) in considerable detail and is divided into seven sections: (1) The ceremonial flight and its variations, (2) the joint flight, (3) the tail display, (4) the scrape ceremony, (5) the pursuit, (6) fighting, and (7) coition. Taking these consecutively, the ceremonial flight is much the commonest and most striking action during the courtship period and is confined to the male alone. He rises at a steep angle with quickly beating wings, uttering repeatedly a loud trisyllabic call, tur-ee-tur. When a height of some 150 or 200 feet has been gained the real ceremonial flight starts. The most obvious point about it is the change of call—the quick trisyllable is suddenly replaced by a lower-toned disyllable, which may be represented by the letter ghrutoe (or grutto, the Dutch name for godwit).
This change was inevitable; on no single occasion did we hear it in any way departed from. The change in flight is equally notable. The quick beat of the wings is suddenly slowed and is replaced by a succession of slow, clipping strokes; at the same time the wings are markedly bent downward just as those of the redshank in some of his courtship flights. The tail is spread to the full and is twisted round, first to one side and then to the other. Simultaneously the whole body is tilted over in the same direction as the tail and the bird flaps along with slow wing beats and body heeled over for 20 or 30 yards. Then the tail is screwed over toward the other side, and the body heels over correspondingly. Thus the performing bird flies along rolling from side to side and repeating the grutto call continuously. We are, on the whole, inclined to attribute it to the rudder action of the tail.
The flight generally takes place within a circle of 150 to 300 yards in diameter and about 200 feet up, but both direction and duration are variable and Huxley has seen one bird "rolling" for over a mile in a straight line, while another has come down after a dozen wing strokes. The descent is even more striking; the rolling flight and call stop simultaneously and the bird glides with rigid wings suddenly nose-diving downwards with almost closed wings till about 50 feet from the ground when the wings are opened and the godwit sideslips in all directions. Just before alighting the wings are opened and held vertically for a second or two afterwards. Another method, occasionally used, is to descend with the wings about two-thirds open, causing a loud roaring noise due to the wind passing through the separated primaries, and in this case the bird alights directly with spread wings and tail.