98 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



anj^where near, the white bar on the wing as well as the white 

 base of the tail is conspicuous, and their long, straight bills are 

 also characteristic. They are very silent in India, but may have 

 a whistled alarm-call as they rise. 



They breed in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, and at the breeding-time have the plumage mainly 

 chestnut, not drab, with some black mottling on the back, and 

 barring below ; most birds before leaving us show a good deal 

 of this plumage coming on. 



The numerous native names of this bird attest its 

 familiarity : The Bengali one is Jaurali, the Nepalese 

 Malgujlia, and the Telugu Tondii ulanka ; while, besides, 

 Gudera, Gairiya, Jangral, and Khag are Hindustani names. 



Bar-tailed Godwit. 



Limosa lapponica. 



The bar-tailed godwit is a sort of poor relation of the better 

 known black-tailed species, smaller and less strikingly coloured, 

 the tail lacking the bold contrast of solid black and white in 

 two sections, but sunply marked with many transverse bands 

 of brown and white, while the body plumage is longitudinally 

 marked with dark stripes. 



Although the dimensions of this bird average smaller than 

 those of the last, there is some overlapping, the smallest being 

 barely lighter than small examples of the black-tailed, though 

 the largest do not reach twelve ounces ; these, as in the common 

 species, are hens, this sex averaging bigger in the bar-tailed 

 godwit also. 



The bar-tailed godwit, although more familiar at home 

 nowadays than the black-tailed, is little known in India ; it 

 is, however, common along the south coast, where specimens 

 have been got in Kurrachee harbour, one as early as Sep- 

 tember 29. The bird is only a winter visitant, and the latest 

 was got on March 28. At Kurrachee, according to Hume, 

 these godwits haunt the extensive mud-banks, mixed up with 

 other waders, but flying off in flocks when alarmed. These 

 flocks did not exceed twenty birds, and however many were 



