Mr. E. A. S. Elliot on the Godivits. 567 



in the spring? — because at this time the tail becomes strongly 

 barred again. There is only one alternative to this taking 

 place, and that is there must be a change in the pigment of 

 the individual feather, the pale ash fading to white (often- 

 times washed with chestnut) and the very faint bars becom- 

 ing more strongly developed, and I am of opinion that this 

 is what happens : certainly the tail-feathers of mature spring- 

 plumaged males do not appear to me to be of new growth, 

 as they are invariably worn at the tip. 



Passing now to the spring plumage, we cannot resist 

 admiring the rich chestnut-red of the adult male, whicli is 

 so strikingly beautiful ; and how some writers of recent date 

 (Newton, ' Dictionary of Birds/ p. 366) have fallen into 

 the error of describing the female as the brightest bird is 

 surprising to me. It is hardly an exaggeration to say there is 

 no comparison between the sexes : the rich red plumage of 

 the underparts is peculiar to the male, the female having 

 the feathers of the neck, thorax, and along the flanks merely 

 barred or edged with rufous ; above the rich black feathers 

 of the male are broadly edged with chestnut-red, whilst in 

 the female the edging is merely buff or white. The females 

 which show only faint traces of rufous in their plumage at 

 all at any age show scarcely any as first year's breeding birds. 

 I took the pains to count the ova in all the females I ob- 

 tained, and in a plain-coloured female, which I presumed 

 Avould be a younger specimen, I found the ova to be one 

 hundred and eight in number. In the other specimens, 

 which were distinctly brighter, this number was not reached, 

 which, I assumed, showed they had laid eggs and were older 

 birds. Hardly believing that any change of plumage could 

 take place in the female between the dates of their appearance 

 in our estuary in May and their appearance at their breeding- 

 station, yet wishing to make assurance doubly sure, I wrote 

 to Mr. Leybourne Popham, who has observed this species 

 in their breeding-haunts in Siberia, and Avho kindly replied 

 as follows : — " They are {i. e. the male and female Bar-tailed 

 Godwit) so totally distinct in the breeding-dress that I can 

 only suppose your object in asking this question is because 



