186 BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 



The egg is described as of a pale yellowish brown colour, 

 speckled, blotted, and spotted with other darker shades of 

 brown. 



Male; weight, about twelve ounces; length, not quite one 

 foot four inches; bill, pale yellowish red, or reddish brown 

 at the base, succeeded by brown, and the rest blackish brown ; 

 it is curved upwards, and is not unfrequently as much as 

 seven inches in length; the space between the bill and the 

 eye is spotted with black. Iris, dusky brown; over it is a 

 reddish white streak; the lower eyelid is white. Forehead, 

 head on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, pale reddish 

 orange brown streaked with blackish brown; in winter, 

 greyish white streaked with pale brown. Chin, throat, and 

 breast, reddish brown, the latter on the lower part with the 

 feathers finely margined with white, the sides streaked with 

 dark brown; in winter the chin and throat are greyish 

 white, tinged with dull yellow, as also is the lower part of 

 the breast. Back on the upper part, blackish brown with 

 a tinge of purple, with oval-shaped spots of pale reddish 

 orange, with which the feathers are also margined; on the 

 lower part it is white with a few small dark feathers; in 

 winter the upper half is fine grey, margined with a paler 

 shade, the shafts and parts immediately adjoining greyish 

 black. 



The wings have the axillary feathers white, cross-barred in 

 summer; greater and lesser wing coverts have the feathers 

 with dark brown centres, and edged with greyish white, in 

 winter white with the centres brown; the primaries have the 

 outer webs almost black, the inner ones dusky brown 

 mottled with white on the outer edges, the shafts white. 

 The tail is marked with alternate irregular bars of deep dusky 

 brown and reddish white, in winter with dusky brown and 

 greyish white; upper tail coverts, white, the centres of the 

 feathers dark brown, some few of them margined with 

 orange brown; sometimes the tail coverts are entirely rufous 

 in summer in the former state they are very conspicuous 

 in flight; under tail coverts, partially streaked with dark 

 brown. Legs and toes, blackish grey, or dark greyish green; 

 they are bare of feathers a long way above the knee. Claws, 

 nearly black. 



The female is larger than the male, her length reaching to 

 one foot five inches, or five and a half. 



The young, before the first change, have the bill frequently 



