626 ELACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



it is repeatedly met with from August to the end of autumn, but 

 only exceptionally in spring (Ussher). 



The Black-tailed Godwit has been known to nest in the Faeroes, 

 and does so annually in the south-east of Iceland ; while on the 

 Continent it breeds, sparsely, as far north as lat. 64°-65° in Scan- 

 dinavia and Russia, plentifully in Poland, sparingly in Silesia, 

 and — where the localities are suitable — in Northern Germany, Den- 

 mark, Holland and Belgium. Elsewhere it is chiefly known on 

 migration, in the course of which it visits the Canaries and Madeira ; 

 its winter-quarters commencing in the basin of the Mediterranean 

 and extending to Abyssinia. In Asia it is found in Western Siberia 

 south of lat. 60" as far east as the valley of the Ob, and through 

 Turkestan to the Altai, ranging over the Indian region to Ceylon 

 in winter ; while, east of the Lena, a larger form inhabits Eastern 

 Siberia and Kamchatka in summer, passing through Japan and 

 China to Australia and Polynesia during the colder months. The 

 occurrence of the Black-tailed Godwit in Greenland is doubtful ; 

 and in North America the representative species is L. hudso?tica, 

 which is smaller and has dark brown — instead of white — axillaries. 



The nest is a slightly-lined hollow among coarse herbage ; the 

 eggs, 4 in number, are pear-shaped, and of a pale olive colour with 

 brown spots : measurements 2*2 by i'5 in. An excellent account of 

 the nesting-habits, by the late Mr. A. C. Chapman, is in ' The Ibis,' 

 1 894, p. 340 ; the usual note being syllabled as tu-ce-todo. The 

 food consists of insects and their larvae, worms &c. 



The adult male in summer (figured in the foreground) has the 

 head, neck and breast reddish-fawn colour, with dark markings on 

 the crown and blackish bars on the lower breast ; mantle brown, 

 mottled with black ; wing-bar conspicuously white ; rump white ; 

 tail-feathers white at their bases, with a broad subterminal black 

 band; belly whitish, barred with dark brown. Length 16 in. (bill 

 37), wing 8 in. The female is decidedly larger (though there is 

 great individual variation), and her tints are duller. In winter the 

 general colour is ash-brown above and greyish-ash below, the vent 

 being white. The young are similar, but early in autumn they are 

 tinged with rufous on the neck. 



The specific name belgica is based upon a full description, with an 

 excellent coloured plate, in Nozeman's ' Nederlandsche Vogelen ' ; 

 while the term agocephala, which has often been employed for this 

 species, was originally bestowed on the Bar-tailed Godwit. 



