SCOLOPACID^E. 393 



being on the two outside feathers ; chin white ; front 

 and sides of the neck, the breast and flanks pale 

 ash-grey, rather darkest on the sides of the breast ; 

 legs, toes and claws dark, almost if not quite black. 

 This agrees very nearly with Yarrell's description of 

 the mature bird in winter plumage. 



The young birds of the year in their first autumn 

 are tinged with red on the neck and ash-brown on 

 the under part of the neck and breast. The beak of 

 both the Godwits, the present species and the Bar- 

 tailed, is slightly curved upwards, and there is a 

 partial web between the two outer toes. 



The eggs are pear-shaped; light olive-brown, 

 blotched and spotted with darker brown. This de- 

 scription of Yarrell's agrees very closely with an egg 

 in my collection, which I believe to be a Blacktailed 

 Godwit's, except that the marks on mine are of two 

 shades, one lighter than the other. 



BART AILED GOD WIT, Limosa rufa. This bird (the 

 "Common Godwit" of Bewick, the "Cinereous 

 Godwit" of that author being also the same species 

 only in its younger plumage) is much more common, 

 not only in this county but throughout England, 

 than the Blacktailed Godwit. It occurs from time 

 to time in various parts of the county, especially in 

 the marsh and on the sea- coast, but it is not quite 

 confined to those localities, the last that came under 

 my notice having been killed in some water-meadows 

 near Crowcombe, on the 19th of January, 1867: it 



