178 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



extending for about half the length of basal phalanx of middle toe, 

 the web between inner and middle toes very small. 



Coloration. — A broad band across upper tail-coverts, axillars, 

 under wing-coverts, tips of greater wing-coverts (broadly) and basal 

 portion of secondaries, proximal primaries, and lateral rectrices, 

 immaculate white, the rest of tail black; summer adults with head, 

 neck, and chest for the greater part cinnamomeous. 



Range. — Northern Europe and Asia, migrating to Abyssinia, India, 

 Australia, etc. (Monotypic.) 



KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OP LIMOSA LIMOSA. 



a. Larger (wing 197-225, exposed culmen 86-124, tarsus 77-92); white at base of 

 proximal primaries, secondaries, and lateral rectrices more extensive; summer 

 adults with under parts more extensively barred, the under tail-coverts usually 

 immaculate white and the cinnamon of chest without bars. (Europe and 



western Siberia, south in migration to northern Africa, etc.) 



Limosa limosa limosa (p. 178). 



aa. Smaller (wing 184-195, exposed culmen 73-91.5, tarsus 61-65); white at base of 



proximal primaries, secondaries, and lateral rectrices more restricted ; summer 



adults with under parts more heavily barred, the under tail-coverts usually 



heavily barred or spotted and the chest barred with dusky. (Eastern Siberia, 



etc., migrating to India, Australia, etc.) Limosa limosa melanuroides 



(extralimital).a 

 LIMOSA LIMOSA LIMOSA (Linnaus). 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



Adult male in summer. — Head, njck, and chest cinnamon, the first 

 two streaked the last barred with dusky; rest of under parts white, 

 the breast and sides (sometimes abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 also) barred with dusky; back and scapulars mixed black, cinnamon, 

 and grayish; wing-coverts brownish gray, the greater coverts 

 broadly tipped with white, forming a broad bar or transverse patch; 

 secondaries also partly white; primaries dusky, the fifth to seventh 

 (counting from outside) white at base, forming a second white patch 

 on the closed wing; rump, longer upper tail-coverts, and greater part 

 of tail blackish or dusky; upper tail-coverts (except terminal half of 

 the longer ones) and basal portion of tail immaculate white, this 

 increasing in extent on lateral rectrices, where occupying greater 

 part of outer pair; axillars and under wing-coverts immaculate 

 white; bill pale brownish or dull yellowish (in dried skins) with 



" Limosa melanuroides Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1846, 84 (Port Essington, 

 Australia); Birds Australia, \i, 1846, pi. 28 and text. — Limosa xgocephala 

 melanuroides Dybowski and Taczanowski, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, ix, 1884, 146; 

 Stejneger, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 29, 1885, 316, 338 (Kamchatka).— To^rmMS 

 melanurus melanuroides Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, iii, 1885, 163. — Limosa limosa 

 melanuroides Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, July 2, 1887, 131 (Bering Island). — 

 Limosa hrevipes (not of Gray, 1844) Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, v, no. 27 (Scolopacee), 

 1864, 21. — Limosa melanura brevipes Campbell, Ibis, 1892, 246 (Korea). 



