BAR-TAILED GODWIT 353 
sparsely spotted with black; axillaries, white, barred with 
black. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the male plumage. 
Adult winter, male and female.—General colour ash-grey, 
with whitish under-parts. 
Immature, male and female..—Resembles the adult winter- 
plumage, but the shade is greyer; the feathers of the back, 
scapulars, and wings, being only thinly edged with rufous. 
Beak. Dark olive. 
FEET. Pale olive. 
TripEs. Dark reddish-brown. 
Hees. Greenish-grey or brownish-olive, blotched with 
dark umber : clutch, four. 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... .. 10 in. Female smaller. 
WING ine Bos eee On as 
BEAK oe re Dy ee 
TARSO-METATARSUS ae liste Ee 
Eee ies Se IEF <a 
BAR-TAILED GODWIT. Limosa lapponica (Linneus). 
Coloured Figures.—Gould, ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv, pl. 
51; Dresser, ‘Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pls. 573 figs. 
1, 2, 574 fig. 2; Lilford, ‘ Coloured Figures,’ vol. v, pl. 56. 
Of the two species of Godwits which frequent our shores, 
the Bar-tailed is by far the most numerous. It occurs in 
considerable numbers every year, being abundant when 
migrating in spring and autumn. A decrease in numbers 
during the winter is probably most marked on the southern 
shores of England; but here, large numbers in nuptial 
plumage reappear in spring. Along the western coasts of 
Great Britain it occurs mainly as an autumn and early 
winter-visitor. 
' I noticed that the immature female specimen from Queen’s Co. 
. . c4 
presented to the Museum of Science and Art, Dublin, has the head and 
neck of a mouse-brown colour; the back showing distinct rufous edgings. 
23 
