MARBLED GOD WIT 281 



June S. These five eggs bear a general resemblance to each other and I be- 

 lieve they are all the product of the same bird. 



Eggs. — The marbled godwit lays four eggs regularly, very rarely 

 three and still more rarely five. The eggs are ovate or ovate pyri- 

 form in shape, with a slight gloss. The ground colors usually run 

 from " pale olive buff " to " deep olive buff," in the greener types 

 from " dark olive buff " to " ecru olive," and in the brownest types 

 to "Isabella color." They are more or less sparingly and irregu- 

 larly marked with small rounded spots, and with irregular, rarely 

 elongated blotches; these are often thicker at the larger end, but 

 seldom confluent. The markings are usually much more conspicu- 

 ous than in other godwit's eggs, but they are in dull browns, such as 

 " Saccardo's umber," " warm sepia," and " bister." The under- 

 lying spots and blotches range in color from " pallid brownish drab " 

 to " deep brownish drab." Some of the greenish types are only 

 faintly spotted with "light brownish olive." One very handsome 

 egg has a " pale olive buff " ground color, conspicuously splashed 

 and blotched with " pale Quaker drab," overlaid with a few small 

 blotches and scrawls of " Saccardo's umber." The measurements of 

 64 eggs average 57 by 39.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 61 by 40.5, 59.5 by 42.5, 51 by 38.5, and 53.7 by 

 37.7 millimeters. 



Young. — I have no data on the period of incubation and do not 

 know whether both sexes incubate or not. The only incubating bird 

 I collected was a female. Though we looked diligently for the 

 young we did not succeed in finding any until June 27, 1906. We 

 were driving across some extensive wet meadows, ideal breeding 

 grounds for marbled godwits, when we saw a godwit, about a hun- 

 dred yards ahead of us, leading two of its young across a shallow 

 grassy pool; we drove toward them as fast as we could, but as we 

 drew near the old bird took wing and the young separated, moving 

 off into the grass in opposite directions. They had evidently been 

 well schooled in the art of hiding and were well fitted by their pro- 

 tective coloring to escape notice, for, though we secured one of them 

 readily enough while it was still running, the other disappeared 

 entirely right before our eyes and within 10 yards of us. Its dis- 

 appearance seemed almost miraculous, for there was practically noth- 

 ing there to conceal it, as the grass was quite short, and there were 

 no shrubs or herbaceous plants of any kind in the vicinity. We 

 searched the whole locality carefully and thoroughly, but in vain. 

 The youngster may have been crouching flat on the ground, relying 

 on its resemblance to its surroundings, or it may have taken advan- 

 tage of some slight inequalities in the ground and skulked away 

 farther than we realized. Later in the day we found another pair 

 of godwits, in a similar locality, with two young, one of which we 



