624 BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 



As a Straggler the Bar-tailed Godwit has been recorded from the 

 Fceroes, but its breeding-range barely extends as far west as Finmark, 

 and though Wolley obtained the eggs in the Muonio district of 

 Lapland, yet there he appears to have been only on the outskirts. 

 On the Petchora the bird has barely been observed ; and it had 

 been only once obtained on the Yenesei, until, towards the end 

 of June 1S95, Mr. Popham found it breeding along that river in fair 

 numbers, between lat. 69° and 72° N. From the Taimyr Peninsula 

 to Alaska, and by way of Japan and China to Oceania, Australia 

 and New Zealand in winter, we find a subspecies which is rather 

 larger, less ruddy, and more marked with brown on the rump. During 

 the colder months our form is irregularly distributed in Europe 

 down to the Mediterranean basin ; in Africa, it migrates to the 

 Gambia on the west and the Somali country on the east ; while in 

 Asia it visits the Mekran coast and the mouths of the Indus. 



Eggs obtained by Wolley in Finland, and figured by Hewitson, 

 are light olive-green, blotched and streaked with brown ; they 

 measure 2*1 by 1*45, being similar to, but rather smaller than, those 

 of the Black-tailed Godwit, the next species. Mr. Popham says 

 (Ibis 1897, p. 105) that no two pairs occupy the same district, and the 

 nest is a slight hollow in the high-lying tundra. Both birds incubate, 

 but the male was found on the nest on three out of four occasions. 

 The sitting Godwit remains on its nest till it can be almost caught in 

 the hand, well knowing that in the resemblance of its back to the 

 surroundings lies its best chance of escaping observation. The 

 food consists of aquatic insects, worms, small crustaceans and 

 molluscs. The note is syllabled by Mr. Harting as lou-ey, /oie-ey. 



In summer the adult male (in the foreground) has the head, neck 

 and under-parts chestnut-red, with dark streaks from the crown to 

 the sides of the breast ; mantle variegated with wood-brown and 

 black ; rump white with brown streaks ; tail buffish-white, barred 

 with dark brown. Length 15-5 (bill 2-25), wing 8 in. The female 

 is larger, but far less ruddy. After the autumn moult the under- 

 parts are chiefly white, with a few dark streaks on the neck and 

 breast ; the upper parts are brownish-grey, which becomes ashy in 

 winter ; the true tail-feathers are chiefly ash-brown with dark shaft- 

 streaks ; but the long tail-coverts are, at all seasons, distinctly barred, 

 so that in ordinary parlance the term " bar-tailed " is not inappro- 

 priate. The young bird has broad bars — retained through the 

 winter — on the tail-feathers ; upper parts tinged with buff and 

 checquered with two shades of brown ; under surface dull buff with 

 dusky streaks. 



