CHARADRIIDAE 287 



The breeding pluinage is reddish-brown and black above, 

 with rufous crown, neck, and breast, marked with dusky ; the rump 

 and terminal portion of the tail are black, the basal portion, tail- 

 coverts, alar bar, and belly white : in winter the upper parts are 

 brownish, the lower grey. The American representative, L. 

 hudsonica, occupies the barren grounds of the north, and migrates 

 to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands ; it has black instead of 

 nearly white axillaries. Though rarer in Britain than the suc- 

 ceeding species during the passage in autumn and spring, small 

 flocks of fairly tame Black-tailed God wits then frequent our nuiddy 

 shores and sands — especially in the south ; the summer note, or 

 yelp, is louder than the winter cry. Four elongated peai-- 

 shaped eggs, of a dull olive shade with brown markings, are 

 deposited in a slightly lined hollow in some grassy marsh. The 

 males of Godwits constantly incubate. L. lapiJonica, the shorter- 

 legged Bar-tailed Godwit, inhabits the countries from Finmark 

 eastward to about the Taimyr Peninsula, where it meets the race 

 L. uropygialis, which extends to Alaska. The western form 

 migrates to the Gambia, Somaliland and North India, the 

 eastern through Japan and China to the Malay Archipelago, 

 Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, rarely occurring in south- 

 western North America. In summer the mantle is rufous-brown 

 and black, the head and under parts are chestnut, with dark 

 markings from the crown to the sides, the rump is white with a 

 few dusky streaks, the tail and axillaries are white baried with 

 brown : in winter the upper surface is chiefly grey, and the lower 

 white. L. ui'(ii'i/(ji(dis has the rump also barred. The nest of 

 the Bar-tailed Godwit is usually in comparatively dry spots, or 

 even on forest-clearings, the eggs being brighter green and more 

 finely marked than those of the Black-tailed species. L. fedoa, 

 the Marbled Godwit of northern North America, which winters 

 southwards to Central America and the West Indies, is dis- 

 tinguished by its large size and buff axillaries. 



The almost cosmopolitan genus JVmncrtius is remarkable for 

 its prolonged decurved bill, and its elongated legs. JV. arquata, 

 the Curlew or Whaup, breeds freely on the moorlands of Britain, 

 and extends throughout Northern Europe and Asia to Lake Baikal ; 

 after breeding it visits the Atlantic Islands, the whole of Africa, 

 and the Indian Eegion. The plumage is pale brown with darker 

 streaks, the rump, tail, and axillaries being white, and the two 



