282 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



secured. The young were in the downy stage, and apparently not 

 over a week old. They shoAved unmistakable godwit characters, 

 particularly in the shape of the head and bill, and the long legs 

 and neck. 



Plumages. — The downy young marbled godwit is in dull colors. 

 The upper parts, including the posterior half of the crown back 

 rump, and wings are " bone brown " or " light seal brown," variegated 

 on the back and rump with pale buff or grayish-white. The under 

 parts, including the forehead, sides of the head, and neck, are " pink- 

 ish-buff," deepest on the neck and flanks, almost white on the belly 

 and head and pure white on the chin and cheeks. There is a narrow 

 loral stripe, extending not quite to the eye, a spot behind the ear, 

 and a short stripe in the middle of the lower forehead of blackish- 

 brown. The shape of the head and bill is characteristic of the 

 species. 



The cinnamon ju venal plumage begins to appear on the flanks at 

 an early stage and its development is rapid. Before the end of July 

 the young bird is fully fledged and able to fly. The fresh ju venal 

 plumage is much like that of the adult in winter ; but the throat and 

 the sides of the head and neck are plain cinnamon without dusky 

 streaks; the feathers of the back and scapulars are more broadly 

 edged or notched, with brighter cinnamon ; the greater and median 

 wing coverts are much more broadly bordered with or more exten- 

 sively cinnamon ; the greater coverts are almost clear cinnamon, with 

 very few dusky markings; and the tail is more broadly barred with 

 dusky. 



Apparently only a very limited amount of molt takes place during 

 the first year. I have seen birds in ju venal or first winter plumage 

 in November, January, and May, though the last two may be excep- 

 tional cases. Perhaps some young birds assume the adult plumage 

 at the first prenuptial molt, but certainly not later than the first 

 postnuptial. More material is necessary to settle this point. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt' beginning in July and 

 lasting well into the fall. This produces the winter plumage in 

 which the breast is immaculate cinnamon and there is little, if any, 

 barring on the flanks. At the prenuptial molt in February and 

 March the body plumage, or most of it, and the tail are molted. 



Food. — Doctor Koberts (1919) says of the feeding habits of the 

 marbled godwit: 



With their long, up-curved bills they probe the shallow water of sloughs and 

 lake shores for aquatic insects and niollusks and also spend much of their 

 time on meadows and low-lying prairies, where they devour grasshoppers and 

 other insects of many kinds. These big birds, when they were as abundant 

 as they once were, must have been an important factor in keeping in check 

 the dangerous insect hordes of our State. But they, with others of their kind, 



