BLACK-TAILED GOD WIT. 639 



patch ; the whole of the head and neck ash brown ; the 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, hack, and tertials, ash brown, the 

 coverts and tertials with lighter coloured edges ; primary 

 quill-feathers dusky black, the shafts white, with some 

 white at the base of all beyond the second, forming a bar 

 across the wing ; basal third of the tail-feathers white, the 

 terminal two-thirds black, except the outer tail-feather on 

 each side, which have a larger proportion of white ; chin, 

 breast, and belly, light greyish ash ; vent and under tail- 

 coverts white ; legs and toes dusky brown, the claws black. 



The whole length of a female seventeen inches ; of the 

 beak alone four inches. From the carpal joint to the end 

 of the first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, 

 nine inches ; length of the tarsus three inches ; of the 

 naked part above, one inch and three-quarters. 



The male in summer has the beak black for half its 

 length from the point, the basal half pale orange ; irides 

 hazel ; from the gape to the eye a dark streak produced by 

 small black spots on feathers of a reddish brown ; over this 

 and around the eye a ring of pale brown ; top of the head 

 and the ear-coverts reddish brown streaked with black ; 

 the neck all round, before and behind, a reddish fawn 

 colour ; the feathers on the back in spring become dark 

 brown, almost black at the base and on the centre ; the 

 ends, which were of an ash colour in winter, become rufous 

 by degrees till the darker feathers with reddish margins 

 pervade the whole of the back : the wing-primaries are 

 more decidedly black, the white coloured portion more 

 pure and conspicuous ; the tail the same at all seasons ; the 

 breast white, barred across with rufous brown and dark 

 brown ; the thighs and belly more sparingly barred with 

 dark brown only ; vent and under tail-coverts white ; 

 legs, toes and claws, brownish black. 



