252 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



The winter dress may be tlms described : — 

 Head and all the upper surface greyish brown, with a small 

 streak of black down the centre of the feathers ; wings dark 

 brown, shafts white; base of the primaries and secondaries 

 and tips of the greater coverts Avhite, forming a band when 

 the wing is expanded ; upper tail-coverts white, forming a 

 conspicuous mark ; tail black, with the exception of the two 

 lateral feathers on each side, which are white at the base and 

 black at the tip ; neck, breast, and flanks greyish brown ; 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; irides brown ; bill 

 greenish grey, becoming paler on the sides of the upper 

 mandible ; legs and feet greenish grey. 



Total length 13 inches ; bill 3f ; wing 7f ; tail 3 J ; tarsi 2f . 



Sp. 521. LIMOSA UROPYGIALIS, Gould. 



Barred -RUMPED God wit. 

 Limosa uropygialis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, 1848, p. 38. 



Limosa uropygialis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol vi. pi. 29. 



I saw this species in very great abundance, in company 

 with Curlews, Oyster-catchers and Sandpipers, at Pitvvater in 

 Tasmania, feeding on the extensive flats left bare by the re- 

 ceding tide ; I also observed it on the sandy flats in Spencer's 

 Gulf and on the sand-banks at the mouth of the river Hunter 

 in New South Wales ; and in all probabiHty it is dispersed 

 over the whole of the Australian coasts. 



Another instance of the law of representation, so frequently 

 spoken of in the course of the present work, is here most con- 

 spicuously shown. To a common observer this bird would be 

 considered identical with the Bar-tailed Godwit {Limosa ri/fa) 

 of Europe; but on comparing the two birds, he will find that the 

 Australian has at all times the lower part of the rump strongly 

 barred with brown, while the same part in the Limosa rufa, 

 when in the Hght-coloured dress, is snow-white. The 



