v CHARADRIIDAE 257 
The breeding plumage 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, J. 
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 Godwits then frequent our muddy 
shores and sands—especially in the south; the summer note, or 
yelp, 1s louder than the winter cry. Four elongated pear- 
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. lapponica, 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 1s 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 barred with 
brown: in winter the upper surface is chiefly grey, and the lower 
white. ZL. wropygialis 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 Vuwmenius is remarkable for 
its prolonged decurved bill, and its elongated legs. V. 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 Region. The plumage is pale brown with darker 
streaks, the rump, tail, and axillaries being white, and the two 
