Hutton. — Our Migratory Birds. 255 



in small parties, which evade observation, but they leave the 

 North Cape district in large flocks, which have several times 

 been seen to depart. This evidence of migration is suffi- 

 ciently strong, but in addition we have that of the change 

 of plumage. The godwit is one of those birds which have 

 different plumages in summer and in winter. In the Siberian 

 summer, during breeding-time, the birds have their summer 

 plumage ; but in New Zealand they are nearly always in 

 their winter plumage, although it is summer with us. A few 

 exceptions in summer plumage have been noticed, and it is 

 probable that these are birds which remained behind when 

 the great April exodus took place. 



The turnstone (Arenaria interpres) also breeds in the 

 Northern Hemisphere, but not so far north as the godwit, 

 and it is found in its breeding-dress in India and Ceylon. In 

 early autumn it leaves its more northern breeding-grounds, 

 and some pass through the Malay Archipelago and New 

 Guinea to Australia and Tasmania. In New Zealand it 

 arrives in November and leaves in March or April, almost all 

 the birds being in winter plumage. But, as in the last case, 

 a few remain and take on their summer plumage, although it 

 has never been known to breed here. Stragglers occasionally 

 spread from Fiji through eastern Polynesia, but there is no 

 regular migi'ation eastward of Fiji. The evidence in this case 

 is not so good as in the last, because the birds are not so 

 numerous, and they have never been seen to leave New Zea- 

 land. 



The knot (Tringa canutus) is another northern bird which, 

 after breeding in Siberia, travels southwards across the equa- 

 tor. Its summer plumage is very different from its winter 

 plumage, which it assumes in September and retains until 

 May. In Canterbury, New Zealand, it appears in November 

 and leaves in about April, thus remaining all through our 

 summer. Generally the birds are in their winter plumage, but 

 there are two specimens in the Canterbury Museum in summer 

 plumage. One of these was shot on the 2nd April and the 

 other in November, 1899, the latter being in company with 

 others in which the summer plumage is just beginning to 

 show. They were shot at Lake Ellesmere. Mr. John Gould 

 also mentions a bird from Queensland, shot on the 2nd Sep- 

 tember, 1861, as changing into summer plumage. It seems, 

 therefore, that some birds have changed the seasons for moult- 

 ing and put on their breeding-dress in our summer, and I 

 think it probable that these birds breed in New Zealand, 

 although they are not known to remain here through the 

 winter. 



The brown-eared sandpiper (Heteropygia acuminata) also 

 breeds in Siberia and Alaska, and, from the former country, 



