256 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



No. 2. Male, immature. Eesembling No. 1. killed on the 

 16th, but with fewer black markings on the breast and flanks. 



No. .S. Female. The chin, neck, breast, and flanks sufiused 

 with reddish tints, mixed with dull white, and streaked and barred 

 with dusky brown, a state of plumage much resembling the female 

 sanderling at the same period. The lower part of the breast and 

 vent still pure white, with a few dark bars and reddish feathers 

 showing here and there. Wing coverts still grey, but the feathers 

 of the head, neck, and back gradually acquiring their reddish 

 margins. Ovary fall of eggs, but none larger than dust-shot. 

 Three other birds of the same size, killed at the same time, and in 

 somewhat similar plumage, proved to be females. 



Of the last series killed, on tlie 19th of May, two 

 proved to be males and two females : — 



No. 1. Male, adult. Similar to the two killed on the 7th of 

 May, very rich in the colour of the neck and breast, but with only 

 a few reddish feathers appearing in the wing coverts. 



No. 2. Female. The change to summer plumage only just 

 commencing. The under parts slightly tinged with red on the 

 neck and breast, but the dark streaks and bars very prominent. 

 Only a few feathers on the lower part of the back have reddish 

 margins. The ovary contaiued some eggs about the size of No, 

 4 shot. 



No. 3. Female. In much the same plumage as the last, but 

 the red on the breast and flanks rather more vivid. Some of the 

 eggs about the size of No. 4 shot. 



No. 4. Male. Plumage resembling No. 6, killed on the 16th 

 but having more white feathers still showing on the lower part of 

 the back and breast. 



From a comparison, of the above specimens, it is 

 evident that the same rule appKes to this species as to 

 the sanderlings in the gradual assumption of their 

 nesting pluma.ge, but the female godwit* never assimi- 

 lates so nearly in colour to the male, as is the case with 



* Mr. Alfred Newton informs me that the female godwita 

 which he has had from Lapland, some of them killed from the 

 nest, have never been very red, but in that pale plumage which 

 was described by Leisler (Nachtrage, p. 172) as characteristic of 

 the so-called Limosa meyeri. 



