52 NORTH AMERICAN SHOREBIRDS. 



Hudsonian Godwit. Limosa hsemastica (Linn.). 



Breeding range. — ^The eggs of the Hudsonian godwit are known 

 only from the Anderson River region of northwestern Mackenzie (Mac- 

 Farlane), but since Edward A. Preble, of the Biological Survey, found 

 the species common in July and August on the west coast of Hudson 

 Bay, probably it breeds also not far north of this region. The breed- 

 ing range is probably the Barren Groimds from the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie to Hudson Bay. 



Winter range. — The species winters in Argentina and Chile south 

 to Chiloe Island (Sclater and Salvin) on the west coast and to the 

 Strait of Magellan (Sharpe) and the Falkland Islands (Abbott). 

 But it is rare in eastern Patagonia south of the Chubut River (Durn- 

 ford), which is just opposite the southern limit on the western coast. 



Migration range. — The migration route between the winter and 

 summer homes is not known. In fall migration the species appears 

 rarely on the coast of Maine (Boardman) and more commonly in 

 Massachusetts (Howe and Allen), Rhode Island (Sturtevant), and 

 Long Island (Dutcher). Whither the birds go when they leave Long 

 Island is as yet unknown. On the rest of the coast of the United 

 States the species is kno%vn only as a very rare straggler. One acci- 

 dental occurrence in Cuba (Gundlach) is the only record for the 

 Greater Antilles, and in the Lesser Antilles it is known only from 

 the extreme eastern end on Barbados (Feilden) and Trinidad 

 (Leotaud). It oc.curs on the coast of British Guiana (Quelch) and 

 in the interior of Brazil (Pelzeln). 



The species seems not to be recorded in spring anywhere on the 

 Atlantic coast between Argentina and Long Island, with the excep- 

 tion of a single pair seen May 8, 1906, near Rehoboth, Del. (Pennock). 

 The very few records on Ijong Island (Sharpe) and in New England 

 (Howe and Allen) during the spring indicate that at this season it 

 is only a straggler along the Atlantic. It passes in spring migration 

 up the Mississippi Valley, entering the United States through Louisi- 

 ana (Beyer) and Texas (Sharpe) and passing north principally along 

 the eastern edge of the plains. The migration route between Argen- 

 tina and Texas is unknown, for there is not a single spring record in 

 the whole distance, and records at any time in the year are limited 

 to one on the coast of Peru, November 9, 1883 (MacFarlane) ; one 

 in Cuba, no date specified (Gundlach); and very doubtful records 

 for Colombia (Burger) and Costa Rica (Zeledon). 



From the above very meager data, it seems probable that the 

 Hudsonian godwit has a migration route similar to that of the 

 golden plover, with this important difference — that whereas the 

 golden plover first goes eastward from its breeding grounds to the 

 coast of Labrador and crossing the Gulf of St. Lawrence strikes out 

 to sea from Nova Scotia, the Hudsonian godwit starts in a south- 



