OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 199 



the Ural into the Caspian 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 Yenisei Valley into this area. 



Allied forms. — Limosa rufa uropygialis, northern and eastern Palaearctic 

 region in summer ; Australian region during antipodean summer. It breeds on the 

 tundras of Northern Siberia above forest growth, probably from the Taimur 

 Peninsula eastwards to the sea of Okhotsk and across Behring Strait into Alaska. 

 It passes Japan, Mantchooria, and China on migration, and winters in the islands 

 of the Malay Archipelago and Australia. In the present state of our knowledge 

 it is impossible to say whether this race of Godwit furnishes another instance of 

 a species breeding in the Northern and Southern hemispheres and having an 

 Intertropical base. This Godwit is known to visit Norfolk Island, New Zealand, 

 parts of Southern Australia and Tasmania during summer in those regions ; but, 

 possibly, its appearance may be abnormal. On the other hand, future research 

 may show that the bird breeds in those latitudes. This is 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 America representative of the Bar-tailed Godwit, breeding as far north as 

 Lake "Winnipeg, and wintering as far south as the coast of Peru. Distinguished 

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

 chestnut. 



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

 North Africa in February, and the stream of migrants slowly percolates 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. 

 Hume states that in India the earliest occurrence of this species known to him 

 in autumn was the 29th of September, and the latest in spring on the 23rd of 

 March. The birds that pass our coasts in spring are mostly adults on their way 

 north to breed, and excessively wary ; but in autumn the flocks are largely com- 

 posed of young birds which are just as remarkably tame. I have often been 

 allowed to approach within a few feet of single birds on the mud-flats of the 



