4oo The Water-fowl Family 



HUDSONIAN GODWIT 

 (JLimosa hczmastica) 



Adult male — Top of head, neck, upper parts, blackish brown, irregu- 

 larly spotted and barred with ochraceous, the rump plain 

 brownish black; upper tail-coverts, white; wing-coverts, plain 

 dark gray; primaries, dark brown, with white shafts; lower 

 parts, chestnut-brown, marked with bars of dark brown, the 

 feathers of the belly tipped with white ; tail, black, with base 

 and tip of white ; wings underneath and axillars, black. 



Adult female in breeding plumage — Similar to male, but paler on 

 breast, the feathers here more mixed with white; averages 

 larger. 



Adult male and female in winter — Above, pale dull brownish gray ; 

 under parts, white ; breast shaded with dark gray. 



Young — Resembles the winter plumage, but each feather of the 

 dorsal region marked with a subterminal dusky crescent, and a 

 narrower terminal one of ochraceous ; under parts, pale drab ; 

 abdomen, white, and jugulum, gray ; bill, grayish yellow, dark 

 brown along the ridge of the upper mandible and toward the 

 tips of both ; iris, brown ; feet, slate color. 



Measurements — Length, 15 inches; wing, 8.25 inches; tail, 3.50 

 inches ; culmen, 3 inches ; tarsus, 2.40 inches. 



Eggs — Four in number ; dark drab in color, larger end stained and 

 spotted with dark umber; measure 2.15 by 1.40 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds on the lower Anderson River in Arctic America, 

 and probably east near the shores of the Arctic to Cumberland, 

 and possibly west to Point Barrow and south to Hudson Bay. 

 Winters in Argentina, Patagonia, south to Straits of Magellan, 

 and on the Falkland Islands. In the migrations through the 

 United States not found west of North and South Dakota, Ne- 

 braska, Kansas, and Louisiana ; most common on the Atlantic 

 Coast in fall and the Mississippi Valley in spring, occurring also 

 in western Cuba, and on the Yukon and Cook Inlet, Alaska. 

 Flocks of this species are said to appear in Argentina in April 

 and stay until September, and these birds, some believe, breed 

 in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. One taken in Ber- 

 muda. 



