HUDSONIAN GODWIT 297 



38.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 60.6 by 

 39.G, 56 by 41.2, and 51 by 35 millimeters. 



Plumages. — I have never seen a downy 3^oung Hudsonian god wit 

 nor any very young juvenals. The sexes are alike in the juvenal 

 plumage and probably all through the first year. The plumages 

 are alike in winter but the females are somewhat larger. A young 

 female in juvenal plumage, taken in Maine in September, is similar 

 to the winter adult, except that the crown is more streaked with 

 dusky; the feathers of the mantle are "sepia," edged with "pinkish 

 cinnamon"; the scapulars and tertials are edged, notched, or barred 

 with "cinnamon," and the tail is tipped with buffy white. I have 

 seen birds in this plumage up to October 13 ; but usually the partial 

 postjuvenal molt of the body plumage and probably some of the 

 scapulars and tertials begins in October. Material is lacking to 

 illustrate the first prenuptial molt, which takes place in South 

 America. Probably this molt is very limited in young birds. A 

 female, taken on May 28 in Wisconsin, probably in first nuptial 

 plumage, shows a mixture of fresh adult nuptial body feathers both 

 above and below, and fresh tail feathers, but the primaries are worn. 

 Probably at the next molt, the first postnuptial, which is complete, 

 the adult winter plumage is assumed. 



Adults have an extensive prenuptial molt, involving everything 

 but the wings and perhaps the tail. This is accomplished during 

 the late winter or early spring before the birds migrate. Dr. Alex- 

 ander Wetmore (1926) says: 



A male shot March 7 is in full winter plumage with worn primaries but 

 newly grown tail feathers and lesser wing-coverts. Two females shot March 

 8 have renewed the flight feathers and tail and have the breeding plumage 

 growing rapidly on the body. 



The postnuptial molt is complete; the body molt begins in July 

 and is well advanced towards completion when the birds reach our 

 shores in August or September; the wings are apparently molted 

 later, after the birds reach their winter homes in South America. 

 There is a striking difference between the richly colored nuptial 

 plumage and the dull and somber winter plumage, with the brownish 

 gray .upper parts and the pale grayish buff under parts. 



Strangely enough, all the recent manuals that I have seen state or 

 imply that the sexes are alike in nuptial plumage; and this in spite 

 of the fact that many years ago Swainson and Richardson (1831) 

 called attention to the striking difference between the two sexes, which 

 are decidedly unlike. In the male the underparts are deep, rich 

 brown, " Mikado brown " or " Kaiser brown," with much individual 

 variation in the amount of black transverse barring, which is some- 

 times almost entirely lacking in the center of the breast. In the fe- 

 male, which is always somewhat larger, the under parts are barred 



