GODWIT (of doubtful etymology; possibly from AS. god, good + wit, wit; hardly from god, good + wiht, wight, creature, or from god, God + wit, wit, or wiht, wight, creature). A genus (Limosa) of large curlew-like shore-birds of the snipe family (Scolopacidfe), with very long bill, slightly curved upward, and long slender legs. All the species frequent marshes and shallow waters, often those of the seacoast, where they seek their food by wading and plunging the long bill into the water or mud like snipes. They sometimes also run after small crustaceans or other animals, and catch them on the sands from which the tide has retired. All are noted for their loud, yelping cries. Two species belong to North America—the great marbled godwit (Limosa fedoa), and the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa hmmastiea). Neither is very numerous, and both are visible only when passing back and forth from their northern breeding haunts to their tropical winter homes; the marbled godwit, however, nests in Iowa and northward. The general hue of these birds is rufous or cinnamon, the marbled godwit being paler than the Hud sonian, but both vary greatly with age, sex, and season; the former has the reddish tail barred with black and without any white, while the latter has a black tail broadly white at the base.
The females are uniformly larger than the males. Godwits build their nests anywhere on the ground, not necessarily near water, and lay three and four eggs, olive drab spotted with umber brown. Four or five other species of god wit arc found in the Old World. The flesh of all is good, and in Elizabethan England it was re garded as an expensive delicacy, often celebrated in the prose and verse of the period. The inces sant pursuit of this bird, particularly by net ting on the fens, nearly exterminated it in Great Britain. It is taken by gunners whenever en countered, but is not much sought after nor especially valued either for sport or_ food. See Colored Plate of SHORE-BIRDS.