OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 203 



Allied forms. — Limosa melanura melanuroides, an inhabitant of the 

 eastern Palssarctic region ; Oriental and northern Australian regions in winter. 

 It breeds from the eastern tributaries of the Yenisei, through the Altai Mountains 

 and the Baikal basin to the valley of the Amoor, apparently not occurring north 

 of lat. 55° in East Siberia. It passes Mongolia and Japan on migration, and 

 winters in China, Burmah, the Malay Archipelago, Northern Australia, and many 

 of the Pacific Islands. This is the eastern form of the Black-tailed Godwit, only 

 subspecifically distinct. In spite of the fact that the area of distribution during 

 the breeding season appears to be discontinuous, the eastern and westerm forms 

 completely intergrade, a fact owing probably to the winter quarters of each 

 impinging. As may be seen, this is exactly reversed in the Bar-tailed Godwit, in 

 which the breeding area of the two forms overlaps, but the winter area is discon- 

 tinuous. Typical examples differ from the Black-tailed Godwit only in size, 

 measuring in length of wing from 7'0 to 8'0 inches, instead of from 8'0 to 

 9'0 inches as in the western race, and in length of tarsus from 2'25 to 3'0 inches, 

 instead of from 3'0 to 3'75 inches. This form should be looked for on the British 

 coasts, especially in autumn. L. hudsonica, the American representative of the 

 Black-tailed Godwit, breeding on the tundras of Arctic America from Alaska to 

 Baffin Bay, and probably in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, wintering in the 

 American portion of the Intertropical realm. It is distinguished from the Black- 

 tailed Godwit by having the axillaries and under wing coverts dark brown instead 

 of white. 



Habits. — -Flocks of Black-tailed Godwits begin to leave their winter quarters 

 south of the Mediterranean in February, and continue to do so until the middle 

 of March. These birds do not appear to be in any great hurry to reach their 

 breeding grounds, as they pass slowly up the coasts of Western Europe, not 

 reaching our Islands before April and May, which is also the date of their arrival 

 in Denmark. The return migration begins in Denmark and the British Islands 

 in August, and lasts into September; in France it begins in September and 

 continues into October. In Upper India this species does not arrive in any great 

 numbers before the end of October, and most of the birds have departed again by 

 the end of March ; but Hodgson states that in Nepal it arrives in September, 

 stays a month before passing south, and returns in March and April. This bird 

 not only frequents the mud-flats and saltings, but more inland marshes and the 

 wet, boggy parts of moors. At its winter quarters in India it is found inland near 

 broads and swamps, usually in the vicinity of rice fields and on the banks of the 

 larger rivers ; but in more littoral districts it affects the mud-flats of estuaries by 

 preference. This Godwit usually walks with rather slow, deliberate steps, but it 

 is capable of running very quickly, and often wades in the shallows. Sometimes 

 it sleeps while standing in water up to the breast, with the long neck and bill 

 nestled in the dorsal plumage. In India they are said to be much more easily 



