6o8 BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 



As a Straggler the Bar-tailed Godvvit has recently been recorded 

 from the Faeroes, but its breeding-range barely extends as far west 

 as Finmark ; and though Wolley obtained the eggs in the Muonio 

 district of Lapland, yet even there he appears to have been only on 

 the outskirts, while no other Englishman has added to our knowledge 

 of its nidification. jSIessrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm only once 

 observed it on the Petchora, and the latter merely obtained a 

 solitary example on the Yenesei, in about 70^ 35' N. lat. East of 

 the Taimyr Peninsula we find a race which is more streaked and 

 barred with brown on the rump, and is known by those who admit 

 its specific distinctness as L. uropygiaUs ; this extends to the Sea of 

 Okhotsk in summer, migrating to Japan, China, the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe our typical form is 

 irregularly distributed during the cold season down to the Mediter- 

 ranean basin, and in Africa it can be traced to the Gambia on the 

 west and the Somali country on the east; while in Asia it is a winter- 

 visitor to the Mekran coast and the mouth of the Indus, and has 

 been obtained in Nepal, but its line of flight does not appear to 

 cross the great central mountains. 



Eggs obtained by Wolley in Finland, and figured by Hewitson, are 

 light olive-green, blotched and streaked with brown ; they measure 

 2'T by 1*45, being similar to, but rather smaller than, those of the 

 Black-tailed Godwit, the next species. The food consists of aquatic 

 insects, worms, small crustaceans and molluscs. The note is syllabled 

 by Mr. Harting as lou-ey, loii-cy, and by this the bird when in winter 

 dress may often be distinguished from the Whimbrel at a distance. 



In summer the adult male (in the foreground) has the head, neck 

 and under parts chestnut-red, with dark streaks from the crown 

 to the sides of the breast ; mantle variegated with wood-brown 

 and black ; rump white with brown streaks ; tail buffish-white, 

 barred with dark brown. Length 15 in. ; wing 8 in. The female is 

 larger, but her colours are paler. After the autumn moult the 

 under parts are chiefly white, with a i^w dark streaks on the neck 

 and breast ; the upper parts are brownish-grey, which becomes ashy 

 in winter ; and the true rectrices are chiefly ash-grey with dark shaft- 

 streaks : the long tail-coverts are, however, distinctly barred, so that, 

 in ordinary parlance, the term ' bar-tailed ' is at no season a mis- 

 nomer. The young have broad bars — retained through the winter — 

 on the tail-feathers ; the upper parts are tinged with buff and 

 checquered with two shades of brown, and the under surface is dull 

 buff with dusky streaks. 



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