GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 237 



basin, thence across country to the Mekran coast to North-east 

 Africa, and occasionally to the extreme north-west of India, the 

 great mountain chains of Central Asia apparently turning the 

 tide of migrants westwards from the Yenesay valley into this 

 course. 



Allied Forms. — Limosa rufa uropygialis, northern and 

 eastern Paleearctic region in summer ; Australian region in winter. 

 Breeds on the tundras of Northern Siberia above forest growth, 

 probably from the Taimyr peninsula eastwards to the sea of 

 Okhotsk and across Behring's Strait into Alaska. Passes Japan, 

 Mantchooria, and China on migration, and winters in the islands 

 of the Malay Archipelago, Australia, the New Hebrides, Norfolk 

 Island, and New Zealand. The Eastern form of the Bar-tailed 

 Godwit, only subspecifically distinct, and completely intergrading 

 with its Western representative. Typical examples differ from the 

 Bar-tailed Godwit in having the prevailing colour of the rump 

 browner, caused by the dark centres of the feathers being larger 

 and more numerous. This form should be looked for on the 

 British coasts, especially during the autumn flights. L.fedoa, the 

 American representative of the Bar-tailed Godwit, breeding as far 

 north as Lake Winnipeg, and wintering as far south as the coast 

 of Peru, but stationary in the central districts. Distinguished 

 from the Bar-tailed Godwit by having the axillaries and under 

 wing coverts chestnut. 



Time during which the Bar-tailed Godwit may be 



taken. — August ist to March ist (to March 15 th in Essex). 



Habits. — The Bar-tailed Godwit begins to leave its winter 

 quarters in North Africa in February, and the stream of migrants 

 is slowly percolating into Europe from that date until the end of 

 April. This stream of migrating Godwits breaks upon our coasts 

 towards the end of April and during the first half of May, but 

 does not appear to extend north of Spurn Point, whence the 

 German Ocean is crossed, and the Arctic breeding grounds are 

 reached towards the end of that month or early in June. Birds 

 on the return journey, mostly young, are observed on the British 

 coasts at the end of August, and the autumn flight continues from 

 that date to the end of October or the first week in November. 

 In India, Hume states that the earliest occurrence of this species 



