LIMOSA .EGOCEPHALA. 833 



brown, lightest on the head and hind neck, and darkening on the lower back into dark brown, the edges of the 

 feathers throughout paler than the rest ; lesser wing-coverts, primaries and their coverts, terminal portion of 

 the secondaries and greater coverts blackish brown, the two latter and the primary-coverts darker than the 

 primaries ; rest of the secondaries, terminal portion of the greater coverts, tips of the primary-coverts, and more 

 than the basal half of the primaries, together with the upper tail-coverts and basal half and tip of the tail, pure 

 white ; remainder of the tail black, decreasing towards the lateral feather, which is all white except about half 

 an inch ; extreme tips of the primaries white ; a whitish stripe from the bill over the eye, a narrow dark orbital 

 fringe ; lores dark brown ; chin, face, and throat whitish ; fore neck pervaded with greyish, the bases of the 

 feathers dark brown ; under surface, axillaries, and under wing white, sullied on the upper breast with greyish ; 

 feathers beneath the ulna dark brown. 



Summer plumage, male (coll. Dresser). Head, entire neck, and sides of chest rufous, the feathers of the head with broad 

 central black-brown stripes, diminishing on the hind neck and increasing again on the lower part, and expanding 

 into broad central bars on the upper back and scapulars, the latter of which parts are likewise barred with 

 rufous; tertials barred with black and rufous; face finely streaked with brown; the chest and flanks barred with 

 black ; the rufous colour on the flanks only present as an edging to the black bands ; a few black bars on the 

 under tail-coverts and abdomen ; lower back and terminal half of the upper tail-coverts black ; tail as in 

 winter. 



Female. " Differs from the male in having the colours on the head and neck much duller ; the back is devoid of the 

 rich ferruginous and black markings, and is dull earthy grey, marked here and there with black and rufous, the 

 scapulars and innermost secondaries are only to a small extent marked wdth black and ferruginous, as in the 

 male ; the feathers on the breast are duller in colour, and have the black bars only very irregularly defined ; and 

 the rest of the underparts are much whiter and less barred than in the male." (Dresser.) 



Young, nestling in down. " Rusty yellow, marked with black, especially on the crown and rump ; a narrow streak 

 through the eye, wing-joints, cheeks, and belly light yellow." (Id. fide Meves). 



Immature. Young birds differ from the adult in winter in having the scapulars and tertials edged and indented with 

 rufous-buff, the wing-coverts margined and edged with white, and the head-feathers edged with buff ; back 

 blackish brown. 



Obs. The Bar-tailed Godwit, L. lapponica, which is found in North India, may possibly wander as far south as 

 Ceylon. It has the tail greyish white, in winter barred with brown ; rump pure white as a rule, though 

 specimens are sometimes found with this part marked with brown. The axillaries are barred with blackish grey 

 instead of being pure white. 



Limosa brevipes, Gray, the Australian Black-tailed Godwit, is a small race of the present species. An Amoy 

 specimen before me measures in the wing 7'3 inches, bill at front 3-1. It is in summer plumage, and differs 

 somewhat from L. cegocephala ; the chin is white, and the breast pale rufous barred with blackish, the bands 

 being continued down upon the flanks, and the ground-colour of the lower parts is brownish grey. 



Other species are : — L. novce~zealandi.ee, the Chinese and Australian representative of L. lapponica, differs in having 

 the rump and upper tail-coverts barred with brown ; Limosa fedoa, Linn., and L. hudsonica are American 

 species. 



It will be well to notice here, curtly, the remarkable form Pseudoscolopax semipalmatiis, the Snipe-billed Godwit, which 

 forms a link between the Snipes and the genus under consideration. This rare and interesting bird, which 

 Mr. Hume suggests may be a vanishing species (but which I hope may not be the case), was procured once (the 

 type) by Jerdon at Madras, so that it may some day wander as far south as Ceylon. The bill is that of a Snipe. 

 The feet are partially webbed, and the legs are longer than those of a Snipe, while the plumage is like that of a 

 Godwit. Mr. Hume has recently obtained three specimens in the Calcutta market, of which he records the 

 dimensions as follows : — Length 13-0 to 13-3 inches ; wing 6-75 to 7-1 ; tarsus 2-0 to 2-2; tail 2-4 to 2-6 ; middle 

 toe and claw 1-48 to 1-58 ; bill from gape 2-89 to 3-1 : weight 3-9 to 4-1 oz. 



The above-mentioned group of birds, combined with the next species, the Avocet Sandpiper (Terekia cinerea), form 

 the subfamily Lhnosinoe of some authors. 



Distribution. — The Black-tailed Godwit may perhaps be a not unfrequent cool-season straggler to Ceylon. 

 I have never met with it, nor have I seen any examples which have been procured in the island since 



