THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 409 



never met with it again. Colonel M' Master is said to have procured it 

 near Rangoon some years ago. 



It has been recorded from Dauria, Eastern Siberia and Mongolia. Mr. 

 Swinhoe states that it summers in inland Northern China, and he procured 

 specimens at Tientsin and Hankow. In winter it visits India and Burmah, 

 and it has been procured in Borneo. 



Little is known regarding the habits of this bird. The two specimens 

 I shot were feeding on the edge of a swampy piece of ground and appeared 

 to be feeling in the mud lor worms. 



Genus LIMOSA, JBriss. 



750. LIMOSA JEGOCEPHALA. 

 THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 



Scolopax limosa, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 245. Scolopax aegocephala, Linn. Syst. 

 Nat. i. p. 246. Limosa aegocephala, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 681 ; Dresser, Birds 

 Eur. viii. p. 211, pi. ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 155 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 469; 

 Hume # Dav. S. F. vi. p. 460 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 356 j 

 Leyye, Birds Ceylon, p. 832 ; Hume # Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 409, pi. ; Oates, 

 S. F. x. p. 239. 



Description. Winter plumage. Chin and upper throat white; sides of 

 the head and neck, lower throat, fore neck, breast, sides of the body, crown, 

 nape and hind neck ashy ; back, scapulars, tertiaries and wing-coverts ashy 

 brown, the shafts darker and the edges of the feathers somewhat paler; 

 rump darker brown, with the edges of the feathers more distinctly paler ; 

 upper tail-coverts white, the longer ones black ; tail white at base, re- 

 mainder dark brown, all the feathers tipped paler, the amount of white at 

 the base of the tail increasing outwardly; primaries brown, the shafts 

 white ; secondaries brown on the inner webs, mostly white on the outer ; 

 abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts white ; axillaries pure white. 



The above description refers to the pure winter plumage, but birds will 

 always be found even in midwinter with rufous marks on the head, neck 

 and breast. In full summer plumage the whole bird is more or less rufous, 

 the chest and flanks barred with black and the upper plumage marked with 

 blackish brown ; the upper tail-coverts and tail, however, are the baine as 

 in winter. 



Bill with the basal half pinkish, the terminal half dark brown ; iris dark 

 brown; legs plumbeous ; claws brown. 



