232 SCOLOPACIDjE : SNIPE, ETC. 



HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 



LIMOSA H^MASTICA (Linn., 1758.) Coues. 



Chars. Feathers on side of lower mandible reaching to a point far 

 in advance of those on upper mandible. Rump blackish. Most 

 of the upper tail-coverts white ; longest coverts and the tail- 

 feathers black with white bases, the tail-feathers also white tipped- 

 Lining of wings sooty-blackish, mixed with some white; axillars 

 black. Under parts rich chestnut-red, crossed everywhere with 

 numerous irregular black bars, there being several on each 

 feather, and usually also crossed with similar white bars, espec- 

 ially behind. Upper parts blackish with a greenish gloss, 

 intimately mixed with rufous and whitish. Bill light-colored, 

 dark on the terminal third. Length, 14.00-16.50 ; extent, 24.00- 

 26.50 ; wing, 7.50-8.50; tail, 3.00-3.50 ; tarsus, 2.25-2.55. 



This smaller Godwit, the American representative of 

 the European Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa czgocephala, 

 will be readily distinguished from the foregoing by the 

 above characters. Young and winter specimens differ a 

 good deal in general body colors, but the specific char- 

 acters of the wings and tail are much the same. The 

 species is more frequently seen in New England than 

 the Great Marbled Godwit, and in some seasons is to be 

 fairly called common ; but it is somewhat irregular in its 

 movements, and more or less locally distributed. Dr. 

 Brewer notices one shot on Cape Cod in November, 

 1878 (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, p. 64), but this is 

 doubtless exceptional. The breeding resorts are en- 

 tirely beyond our limits, in hyperborean regions. A 

 set of four eggs in the Smithsonian, from Anderson 

 River, where they were secured by Mr. MacFarlane, 

 June 9, measure 2.15 to 2.20 in length by about 1.40 in 

 breadth. The ground is a very heavily shaded olive- 



