BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 267 



able numbers ; but experience teaching them like other 

 bipeds, they became gradually less easy of approach. They 

 were in very good condition, and sold at this time in Belfast 

 at sixpence a couple. Godwits remained later than usual in 

 the bay that season, and occasionally fell to my gun until 

 the 24th of October. At the beginning of September, when 

 these birds appeared in such numbers in Belfast Bay, they 

 were very abundant in Larne Lough, the next inlet of the 

 sea northward — and of a similar oozy nature — on the Antrim 

 coast," 



The numbers that appear in spring along the east coast 

 of Britain are much less than those of autumn, and the birds 

 do not seem to attract much attention at that season. Indi- 

 viduals are sometimes seen so late as the middle of May, by 

 which time they have assumed their summer clothing. 



It does not appear that this species breeds in any part of 

 Britain. On their arrival, however, the young are in their 

 first plumage, which I am enabled to describe from two 

 recent specimens. 



Young. — Bill dull flesh-coloured, with the ridge dusky, 

 and the terminal half black. Iris dusky ; tibia and tarsus 

 dull greyish-blue ; toes almost black, as are the claws. The 

 upper part of the head is blackish-brown, streaked with pale 

 brownish-grey ; over the eyes a broad band of white minutely 

 streaked with brown. The sides of the head and the neck 

 all round, with a portion of the breast and sides of the body, 

 pale brownish-grey, streaked with dark grey ; the fore-neck, 

 with low markings, and tinged with cream-colour. The 

 rest of the lower parts white ; the axillars, some of the 

 feathers of the sides, and the lower tail-coverts barred or 

 spotted with blackish-grey. The lower marginal wing-coverts 

 are white, with a blackish-grey spot ; the larger coverts are 

 white, variously marked with pale grey. The feathers of 

 the lower hind-neck, fore part of the back, and scapulars are 

 blackish-brown, margined with pale greyish-red, the mar- 

 ginal bands of the large feathers indented. The middle and 

 hind part of the back white, each feather spotted or broadly 

 barred with greyish-black ; the upper tail-coverts with four 



