3S0 LIMOSA. 



tip of the bill only slightly expanded, hard, and smooth; and with the latter {Ereunetes) in 

 not having the frontal feathers extending beyond the angle of the gape. 



The external characters which distinguish them from Tolanus are so slight that the 

 genus could scarcely claim recognition, except on the score of convenience, were it not that 

 the profile of the keel of the sternum appears to vary in the two genera. In Tolanus the 

 apex rises up to meet the furculum, as it does in Scolopax, whereas in Limosa it seems to 

 get away from it as far as it can, as it does in Pterocles. 

 Pectinated It is a curious fact that the Black-tailed Godwits of the Old World have the claw of 



the middle toe pectinated, as in most of the species of the genera Glareola and Cursorius. 



Synonymy of the Genus Limosa. 



Type. 

 Limosa, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 261 (1760) L. melanura. 



Actitis, Illiger, Prodromus, p. 262 (1811) L. melanura. 



Limicula, Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. iii. p. 245 (1816) L. melanura. 



Fedoa, Stephens, Shaiv's Gen. Zoul. xii. pt. i. p. 70 (1824) L. fedoa. 



Determina- The synonymy of the genus Limosa is voluminous enough when we consider that it 



typ e . only contains four good species, and is doubtfully distinct from Tolanus. Linneus placed 



the Godwits in his genus Scolopax, because they have a hind toe more developed than 

 usual ; but Brisson removed the Godwits with the Greenshank and the Dusky Redshank to 

 a new genus, which he called Limosa. As the Black-tailed Godwit l {Limosa melanura) is 

 both the Scolopax limosa of Linneus and the Limosa limosa of Brisson, it has a double 

 claim to be regarded as the type of the genus. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



(during the breeding-season). 



Black-tailed. Pal^ARCTIC Region. Bar-tailed. 



L. melanura North-west. L. rufa. 



L. melantjroides North-east. L. tjropvgialis. 



Nearctic Region. 

 L. hudsonica North. L. fedoa. 



1 The following ornithologists have called the Black-tailed Godwit Limosa agocephala (Linn.) : — Fleming, 

 Degland and Gerbe, Gray, Blyth, Schlegel, Bonaparte, Middendorff, Shelley, Sharpe, Dresser, Hume, Heuglin, 

 Blanford, Macgillivray, Newton, Harting, Saunders, Oates, Wardlaw-Ramsay, Legge, Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway, and Irby. On what grounds they have done so it is impossible to imagine. Linneus was 

 acquainted with both the European Godwits, naming the Black-tailed Godwit Scolopax limosa and the Bar- 

 tailed Godwit Scolopax lapponica. His Scolopax axjocepliala is based upon the descriptions of Willughby and 



