450 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



BARTAILED-GrODWIT \Lim6sa lapponica (Linnaeus). Sea- wood- 

 cock, peterel, goddin ; speethe (Northumberland) ; tang-whaup (Orkneys). 

 French, barge-rousse ; German, rostrote Uferschnepfe ; Italian, pittima 

 minore\. 



i. Description. The bartailed-godwit may at once be distinguished from the 

 black-tailed species by its smaller size, heavily barred tail, and hinder tail-coverts, 

 relatively short legs, and the white lower back. The sexes are alike, and there 

 is a marked seasonal change of plumage. (PI. 125.) Length 15*5 in. [393'70 mm.]. 

 In nuptial dress the crown, neck, and mantle are of a bright bay, heavily striated 

 on the crown and neck with brownish black ; on the mantle the dark central 

 area of the feathers expands so as to restrict the bay colour to the margins of 

 the feathers, save in the hindmost scapulars, where the bay colour forms a more 

 or less distinctly serrated pattern. The rump and upper tail-coverts are white, 

 more or less striated with black, save only the hindmost coverts, which are heavily 

 barred black and more or less bay-coloured. The two central tail feathers are of 

 a pale rufous, barred with black, while the remaining feathers are white and crossed 

 by numerous black bars. The wing-coverts are ash-brown, margined with white, 

 but a few of the minor coverts may be dark brown with a bay-coloured inner web. 

 The primaries are dark brown, the innermost margined with white; the secondaries 

 dark brown, and also margined with white. The innermost major coverts of the 

 primaries are tipped with white. The whole under surface, including the under 

 tail-coverts, is of a bright bay, save only the under surface of the wing and 

 axillaries, which are white, and the axillaries are more or less barred with black. 

 The beak is black, flesh-coloured at the base, and the legs are black. The female 

 differs from the male at this season only in having the bay or " chesnut " colour 

 paler, and in retaining an admixture of the grey feathers of the winter dress. After 

 the autumn moult the bay colour is entirely lost, the feathers of the upper parts 

 being of an ash-grey colour, margined with white, and finely striated with dark 

 brown. The hindmost tail-coverts become pure white, barred with black, but the 

 tail feathers are without bars, and of a uniform ash colour, or faintly barred. The 

 fore-neck, fore-breast, and flanks are ash-grey, finely striated with darker grey 

 save on the hinder flanks, which bear arrow-head markings. The breast and 

 abdomen are white. The fledgling plumage resembles that of the adult in winter, 

 but is of a browner hue, especially on the scapulars and innermost secondaries, 

 which are slightly tinged with chestnut. The tail is barred, as in the adult in 



