THE HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 465 



At this season, these birds associate with other species ; 

 and it is a common occurrence to bring to the ground, a?t 

 one discharge of the gun into one of these flocks, two or 

 three different species. 



By the 20th of September, they have left our shores. 

 They are most abundant about the first week in that month. 



LIMOSA HUDSONICA. Swainson. 

 The Hudsonian Godwit. 



Scolopax Hudsonica, Latham. Ind. Orn., II. (1790) 720. 



Limosa Iludsonica. Sw. F. B. A., II. (1831) 396. Nutt. Man., II. (1834) 175. 

 Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 426 ; V. 592. /&., Birds Am., V. (1842) 335. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Smaller than the preceding; bill longer than the head; both mandibles grooved, 

 slightly recurved; wings long; legs moderate; membrane uniting the outer and 

 middle toe large. 



Adult. Upper parts brownish-black, with spots and transverse bars of pale- 

 reddish on the back ; rump brownish-black ; upper tail coverts white ; wing coverts 

 and shorter quills dark-cinereous ; primaries brownish-black ; under parts yellowish- 

 red, with transverse bars of brownish-black on the breast and sides and under tail 

 coverts, and frequently with the feathers on the abdomen widely tipped with white ; 

 tail black, with the base white, and narrowly tipped with white; under wing coverts 

 and axillary feathers black ; shafts of primaries white ; bill pale-yellowish at base ; 

 tip brownish-black; legs bluish-brown. 



Younger. Head and upper parts cinereous, irregularly marked on the top of the 

 head, and on the back, with brownish-black: stripe before, and over the eye, white; 

 under parts dull yellowish- white ; under wing coverts and axillaries black; rump 

 black; upper tail coverts white; tail black; base and tip white; bill yellow, tipped 

 with brownish-black; legs dark-brown; iris brown. 



Total length, about fifteen inches; wing, eight; tail, three; bill, two and three- 

 quarters to three and a half; tarsus, two and a half inches. 



This species is less abundant than the preceding, seldom 

 more than a half-dozen specimens being taken in a season 

 on our coast. It associates with the other, and has all its 

 habits and characteristics. It is called, by the gunners, the 

 " Smaller Doe-bird." 



Like the Greater Godwit, it breeds in the most northern 

 sections of the country. I have no specimen of its egg 

 by me, and can give no description of its breeding habits 



here. 



30 



