256 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
No. 2. Male, immature. Resembling No. 1. killed on the 
16th, but with fewer black markings on the breast and flanks. 
No. 3. Female. The chin, neck, breast, and flanks suffused 
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 full 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 the 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 contained some eggs about the size of No. 
4, shot. 
No. 8. 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 applies to this species as to 
the sanderlings in the gradual assumption of their 
nesting plumage, 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 godwits 
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 meyert. 
