356 CHARADKIID.E 



Adult winter, male and female. Breast and abdomen, 

 greyish-white ; front of neck and upper breast, thinly 

 streaked with brown ; top of head, hind-neck, back, 

 scapulars, and wings, ashy-grey, streaked with greyish- 

 brown ; tail, ash-brown, without any barring ; upper tail- 

 coverts, barred with brown and white. 



Immature, male and female. Top of head, back, 

 scapulars, and wings, variegated with brown and buff ; 

 cheeks, neck, and breast, dull greyish-buff, indistinctly 

 streaked with brown ; abdomen, yellowish-buff without 

 streaks ; under tail-coverts, whitish ; tail, broadly barred 

 with huffish-white and dark-brown ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts, white ; over the eye is an ill-defined bufh'sh-white 

 stripe ; the immature plumage bears a general resemblance 

 to the adult winter-plumage, but there is more fulvous 

 shading in the former. 



BEAK. Brownish ; slightly recurved near the tip. 



FEET. Brownish. 



IRIDES. Blackish -brown. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH 15*5 in. 



WING 8 



BEAK ... 3*5 ,, 



TARSO-METATARSUS 2*5 ,, 



EGG ... 2-1 X 1-45 in. 



Allied Species and Representative Forms. The Eastern 

 Siberian form which ranges to Alaska, and migrates over 

 Asia to China and Japan, reaching Australia and New 

 Zealand, is larger, with duller chestnut-red markings, and 

 browner about the rump (Saunders). 



BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. Limosa belgica (J. P. Gmelin). 



Coloured Figures. Gould, 'Birds of Great Britain,' vol. iv, pi. 

 50; Dresser, 'Birds of Europe,' vol. viii, pi. 573 fig. 3, 

 574 fig. 1 ; Lilford, ' Coloured Figures,' vol. v, pi. 55. 



.This fine bird is a somewhat scarce visitor to our coasts. 

 Formerly it was more abundant and bred in some of the 



