curlew Numenius arquata, a drab-coloured bird of about 60 cm (24") in average total length, of migrant habits, with breeding grounds in the north of Asia and Europe.

The godwits mentioned in early English cookery books are marsh birds of the genus Limosa, not unlike the curlew, but smaller. They had a high reputation as table fare. Sir Thomas Browne (1902), writing in the 17th century about the natural history of Norfolk, observed that they ‘were accounted the daintiest dish in England and I think, for the bignesse, of the biggest price’.