202 AVES GRALLATORES. [LIMOSA. 



legs vermilion red. In very old males, according to Temminck, the nape, 

 and sometimes the occiput also, is perfectly white. (Female.) Smaller ; 

 the black on the back and wings inclining more to brown, and without 

 the greenish gloss. (Young.) Crown, occiput, and nape, dusky ash; back 

 and wings brown ; all the feathers with whitish edges : legs orange-red. 

 (Egg.) Pale blue, blotched and streaked with ash green and red brown : 

 long. diam. one inch nine lines ; trans, diam. one inch three lines. 



A very rare and accidental visitant in this country. Sibbald mentions 

 a pair which were killed in Scotland. Pennant has recorded another 

 which was shot near Oxford ; and White, in his Nat. Hist, of Selborne, 

 speaks of five which were shot out of a flock of six on the verge of Frin- 

 sham pond, near Farnham in Surrey, in April 1779. Has also been killed 

 in Anglesea, and more recently in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Said to be 

 not uncommon in the eastern parts of Europe, frequenting the borders of 

 rivers and lakes. Breeds in the salt marshes of Hungary and Russia. 

 Food, tadpoles, aquatic and other insects, &c. 



GEN. 77. LIMOSA, Briss. 



195. L. rufa, Briss. (Bar-tailed Godwit.) Tail with 

 eight or nine transverse dusky bars : bill curving conside- 

 rably upwards : middle claw short, and without serratures : 

 tarsi moderate. 



L. rufa, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 668. Godwit, and Red 

 Godwit, 'Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. pp. 59, & 61. Shaw, Gen. Zool. 

 vol. xii. p. 77. Red Godwit, Selb. Ittust. vol. n. p. 98. pi. 22. 



DIMENS. Entire length sixteen inches : length of the bill (from the 

 forehead) three inches, (from the gape) three inches one line; of the 

 tarsus one inch eleven lines and a half; of the tail two inches ten 

 lines ; from the carpus to the end of the wing eight inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Male and female in winter plumage.) Crown of the 

 head, space between the bill and the eyes, cheeks, and neck, pale ash- 

 colour, with longitudinal streaks of brown ; a broad line above the eyes, 

 throat, breast, belly, and abdomen, white ; flanks, and some of the under 

 tail-coverts, streaked with dusky brown: upper part of the back, and 

 scapulars, cinereous gray, the shafts of the feathers, together with a 

 small portion of the webs on each side, brownish black; wing-coverts 

 white, the middle of each feather deep brown : quills dusky : lower 

 part of the back, and rump, white with dusky spots : tail with alter- 

 nate transverse bars of white and blackish brown : basal half of the 

 bill purplish red; the tip black: irides brown: legs and toes black. 

 (Male in summer plumage.) Crown and nape reddish orange, with brown 

 streaks ; line above the eyes, throat, sides of the neck, and all the under 

 parts, bright ferruginous ; the feathers on the sides of the breast, flanks, 

 and under tail-coverts, longitudinally streaked with dusky brown : back 

 and scapulars deep black, with oval spots of pale orange-red at the edges 

 of the feathers ; wing-coverts dusky ash, edged with white : quills black 

 with white shafts : rump white spotted with black : tail with alternate 

 bars of brown and reddish white. In the female, the ferruginous tint 

 is not so bright : the upper parts are deep brown, with cinereous un- 

 dulating lines, and yellowish spots on the edges of the feathers : under 

 parts pale reddish yellow, with the exception of the middle of the belly, 

 which is pure white ; sides of the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts, 

 streaked with black. Dimensions always larger than those of the male. 



