624 BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 
As a straggler the Bar-tailed Godwit has been recorded from the 
Feeroes, but its breeding-range barely extends as far west as Finmark, 
and though Wolley obtained the eggs in the Muonio district of 
Lapland, yet there he appears to have been only on the outskirts. 
On the Petchora the bird has barely been observed; and it had 
been only once obtained on the Yenesei, until, towards the end 
of June 1895, Mr. Popham found it breeding along that river in fair 
numbers, between lat. 69° and 72° N. From the Taimyr Peninsula 
to Alaska, and by way of Japan and China to Oceania, Australia 
and New Zealand in winter, we find a subspecies which is rather 
larger, less ruddy, and more marked with brown on the rump. During 
the colder months our form is irregularly distributed in Europe 
down to the Mediterranean basin; in Africa, it migrates to the 
Gambia on the west and the Somali country on the east ; while in 
Asia it visits the Mekran coast and the mouths of the Indus. 
Eggs obtained by Wolley in Finland, and figured by Hewitson, 
are light olive-green, blotched and streaked with brown; they 
measure 2°1 by 1°45, being similar to, but rather smaller than, those 
of the Black-tailed Godwit, the next species. Mr. Popham says 
(Ibis 1897, p. 105) that no two pairs occupy the same district, and the 
nest is a slight hollow in the high-lying tundra. Both birds incubate, 
but the male was found on the nest on three out of four occasions. 
The sitting Godwit remains on its nest till it can be almost caught in 
the hand, well knowing that in the resemblance of its back to the 
surroundings lies its best chance of escaping observation. The 
food consists of aquatic insects, worms, small crustaceans and 
molluscs. The note is syllabled by Mr. Harting as /ow-ey, Jou-ey. 
In summer the adult male (in the foreground) has the head, neck 
and under-parts chestnut-red, with dark streaks from the crown to 
the sides of the breast ; mantle variegated with wood-brown and 
black ; rump white with brown streaks ; tail buffish-white, barred 
with dark brown. Length 15°5 (bill 2°25), wing 8in. The female 
is larger, but far less ruddy. After the autumn moult the under- 
parts are chiefly white, with a few dark streaks on the neck and 
breast ; the upper parts are brownish-grey, which becomes ashy in 
winter ; the true tail-feathers are chiefly ash-brown with dark shaft- 
streaks ; but the long tail-coverts are, a¢ a// seasons, distinctly barred, 
so that in ordinary parlance the term “ bar-tailed” is not inappro- 
priate. The young bird has broad bars—retained through the 
winter—on the tail-feathers; upper parts tinged with buff and 
checquered with two shades of brown; under surface dull buff with 
dusky streaks. 
