2 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



visitor to the Mekran coast and Kurrachee ; and Blyth states (' Ibis,' 1865, p. 36) 

 that there is an Himalayan example in the Derby Museum of Liverpool, and that 

 Mr. Hodgson obtained it in Nepal ; but it has not as yet been recorded in 

 Southern India or Ceylon. In Siberia Mr. Seebohm obtained a solitary example 

 in about 70° 35' N. lat. on the Yenesei ; and Middendorff found breeding on 

 the marshes of the Taimyr, in 74° N. lat., a bird with a more barred rump, which 

 has been distinguished as var. novce-zealandice, G. R. Gray, and as L. wopygialis 

 by Gould, who, however, in his ' Birds of Great Britain,' stated that he believed it 

 was not separable. This form, of questionable distinctness, extends to Kamt- 

 schatka and Bering Island, migrating to Japan, China, the Eastern Archipelago, 

 Australia and New Zealand. 



" Details respecting the breeding habits of the Bar-tailed Godwit are scarce. 

 The late Mr. Wolley obtained its eggs at Salmojervi, in Finland, on 29th May, 

 1858, but no account of his discovery has been published beyond his statement to 

 Hewitson (Eggs Brit. Birds, ii. p. 343), that 'this species breeds in marshes, 

 chiefly in the neighbourhood of mountains, and gets up so warily from its nest 

 that it is difficult to find it.' Two eggs from Eowa, near Kittila in Finland, are 

 figured in the above work ; and others have since been obtained by various 

 collectors. The ground-colour is light olive-green blotched and streaked with 

 brown, and they measure 2'1 by 1'45 in., being similar to but rather smaller than 

 those of the Black-tailed Godwit." 



Mr. H. Leyborne Popham has kindly supplied me with some valuable notes 

 on the breeding-habits of this species as observed by him on the Siberian tundra 

 last summer (1895). He writes : — " The Bar-tailed Godwit {Lhnosa lapponica) 

 nests on the tundra of Siberia, where I found it faii'ly plentiful near the mouth of 

 the Yenisei between lat. 69° N. and 72° N., never more than one pair of the same 

 species occupying the same district. 



" The nest is extremely difficult to find, being only a slight hollow on a vast 

 expanse of high-lying tundra, and lined with a few bits of dry grass. Both birds 

 take part in the incubation of the four eggs (but I have found the male bird on 

 the nest on three out of the four occasions on which I have been near a nest), one 

 bird sitting very close, while the other meets the intruder at least a mile from the 

 nest, and never leaves him till he is well clear of the neighbourhood, keeping 

 up an incessant screaming both when standing on the ground and when flying 

 round *. The nests were found between June 27th and July 3rd, 1S95. 



* [JMiddeudorif observed the same habit ia the form of this species (distinguished by some writers 

 as L. uro2»j<jialis) which he met with on the Eiver Taim_vr. He saj's (• Sibirische Eeise,' ii. p. 218) 

 " it was not easy to find the eggs, as the bird, generally the male, met the intruder from a far 

 distance with loud outcries, and thus did not betray the nesting-place like other waders." — F. P.] 



