388 



LIMOSA. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



whilst in the western form the prevailing colour of each feather of these parts is white, the 

 brown centres being more or less obscure. 



It is impossible to say where these two forms meet, but most probably on the Taimyr 

 Peninsula. An example which I obtained in the valley of the Yenesay is unquestionably 

 the western form. Probably the Godwits found by Middendorff on the Taimyr Peninsula 

 are somewhat intermediate, as he failed to notice any difference between them and 

 examples obtained at Okhotsk. The eastern colony of Bar-tailed Godwits pass the coasts 

 of Japan, Mantchuria, and China on migration, and winter in the islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago, Australia, the New Hebrides, Norfolk Island, and New Zealand. 



Literature. 



LIMOSA FEDOA. 



AMERICAN BAR-TAILED GOD WIT. 



Diagnosis. Limosa axillaribus subalaribusque castaneis. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known. 



Synonymy. Seolopax fedoa, Linneus, Sijst. Nat. i. p. 146 (1758) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244 (1766). 



Limosa americana rufa, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 287 (1760). 



Seolopax marmorata, Latham, Index Orn. ii. p. 720 (1790). 



Limicula fedoa (Linneus), -» 



T . . . ' , t \-ls \ Vieillot.N. Diet, d' Hist. Nat. iii. p. 248 (1816). 



Limicula marmorata {Lath.), J r v - . 



Limosa fedoa {Linn.), Sabine, Franklin's Polar Sea, p. 689 (1823). 



Fedoa americana, -» 



-^ , ,_ ± , , v Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., Birds, xii. pt. i. pp. 71, 82 (1824). 



ledoa marmorata {Lath.),) r ' r rt v ' 



Limosa adspersa, Naumann, Vbg Deutschl. viii. p. 429 (1836). 



Totanus fedoa {Linn.), Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 158 (1885). 



Plates. — Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, iii. pi. 137; Wilson, Am. Orn. pi. 56. fig. 4; Audubon, 



Birds of America, v. pi. 348. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, and Bidgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 255. 

 Eggs, described in the above-mentioned volume, p. 258, indistinguishable from large examples 



of L. melanura. 



Specific The American Bar-tailed Godwit, sometimes called the Marbled Godwit, may always 



characters. i^ rec0 g n i Z ecl by its chestnut asbillaries and under wing-coverts. 





