TEREK GODWIT. 75 



Sj^ecijlc Characters. — Beak muck turned up ; tarsi short; middle 

 toe slightly shorter than the tarsus ; a white baud across the 

 wing, of \Vhich the under parts are pure white. Length eight 

 inches. — Degland. 



The Terek Goclwit is only an accidental visitor into 

 Europe. It is found thus wandering out of its real 

 Asiatic home, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, and 

 into Southern Russia. According to Temminck it has 

 been killed in Normandy, and he says there is no 

 difference between these specimens and those which he 

 received from Japan. The same author has recorded 

 its capture near Paris. He says it strays into Europe 

 in bands of the Common Redshank. It is really an 

 Asiatic bird, and is found plentifully in Sumatra, 

 Borneo, and Japan. 



It lives upon worms, insects, and small shell-fish. 



As it is only half the size of the Godwits which 

 are known as winter visitants to the British Isles so its 

 egg is proportionally small, as will be seen by reference 

 to my figure, which is copied from Biideker's work on 

 European Eggs, (pi. 14, fig. 4.) This egg is very like 

 in markings that of the Wood Sandpiper, but is dis- 

 tinguished from it by its more obtuse lesser extremity. 



Altogether we are sadly in want of authentic in- 

 formation about the natural history of this bird. I give 

 Temminck's description: — 



Male and female in winter. — Forehead, cheeks, throat, 

 crop, and all the under parts of a pure white, varied 

 in front of the neck by small ash-coloured streaks; 

 top of the head, all the other upper parts, and the 

 two middle quills of the tail ash-colour, very clear, 

 the shafts of the feathers only being darker. Shoulder 

 edges of the wings and the primaries black; the 

 secondaries tipped with white; shaft of the first primary 



