BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 643 



Black-tailed God wit. It is found on the shores of the Cas- 

 pian sea ; it was obtained by M. Menetries the Russian Na- 

 turalist on the scientific expedition to the Caucasus, and M. 

 Temminck says it is found in India, at Java, and Timor. 



The egg of this Godwit is figured by Dr. L. Thienemann, 

 and I have in my collection one egg obtained in Yarmouth 

 market, which so exactly resembles the coloured figure of 

 the egg in the work referred to, that I venture to describe 

 its size, colours, and markings, but without any other 

 authority than that I have named for its being the egg of 

 the Bar-tailed Godwit. This egg measures one inch 

 eleven lines in length, by one inch and four lines in breadth, 

 of a pale yellowish wood brown, speckled, spotted, and 

 blotched with clove brown, and umber brown. 



The food of this species is aquatic insects, worms, and 

 molluscs. In winter these birds are seen on various parts 

 of our sea coast. At this time of the year the beak is 

 black at the point, the basal portion pale reddish brown ; 

 irides dusky brown ; top of the head, and back of the 

 neck, ash brown, each feather with a central streak of 

 darker brown along the line of the shaft; back, and 

 scapulars, dark brown, edged with pale wood brown ; all 

 the wing-coverts, secondaries and tertials, dark brown, 

 with greyish white edges ; primary quill-feathers dusky 

 black, with white shafts, the shorter ones edged with 

 white ; rump, and upper tail-coverts white, barred with 

 brown ; tail-feathers barred throughout their whole length 

 with dark brown, and greyish white in nearly equal 

 breadth ; neck in front, ash brown ; breast, belly, and 

 vent, white ; under tail-coverts white, with only one or 

 two transverse bars of brown towards the end ; legs, and 

 toes, dark blue, the claws black. 



A female, which, as in the Black-tailed Godwit, is larger 



T T 2 



