184 



Archipelago into Australia and Tasmania, those birds which do not die on the way returning annually to 

 their breeding-ground in Siberia and Kamtschatka. This statement may seem at first startling, or even 

 incredible, but we must remember that a bird could easily travel from Kamtschatka to Tasmania in a month ; 

 so that, after the breeding-season was over in the Northern Hemisphere, there would be ample time for 



globe-trotting, if the bird felt so inclined Of the living stream, already mentioned, a small branch, 



consisting of three or four species, leaves New Guinea for New Zealand. Of these the godwit {Limosa novce- 

 zealandim) is the best-known case. These birds breed in Eastern Siberia from June to the end of July, and 

 then leave. In September, and again in April, they are found in China, some of them passing the winter in 

 the Island of Formosa. Others arrive in August or September in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the New 

 Hebrides from the north, and depart again northwards early in May. Stragglers go to Samoa and Tonga. In 

 New Zealand many birds arrive during October, November, and December, spread as far south as Stewart 

 Island, and leave at the end of March or the beginning of April. Some also visit the Chatham Islands ; but 

 they are not known to breed either in New Zealand or in Australia. In New Zealand they arrive in small 

 parties, which evade observation, but they leave the North Cape district in large flocks, which have several 

 times been seen to depart. This evidence of migration is sufficiently strong, but in addition we have that of 

 the change of plumage. The Godwit is one of those birds which have different plumages in summer and in 

 winter. In the Siberian summer, during breeding-time, the birds have their summer plumage ; but in New 

 Zealand they are nearly always in their winter plumage, although it is summer with us. A few exceptions in 

 summer plumage have been noticed, and it is probable that these are birds which remained behind when 

 the great April exodus took place. 



I have only to remark here that birds in the rufous summer plumage are more frequent than 

 Captain Hutton supposes. A collector in my service once came upon a small flock of them, near 

 Collingwood, all of the birds in summer plumage, and out of these some half-dozen came into 

 my possession. They were in their complete livery, but some others had only partially assumed 

 the summer plumage. 



Captain Mair, in a letter to myself, referring to the article in the 'English Illustrated 

 Magazine,' remarks : " The writer made no reference to the very large number of these birds that 

 remain in New Zealand throughout the winter. These sojourners must have a clerk of the 

 weather of their own who predicted an unusually mild winter, for many thousands remained here 

 this year. I never before saw them in such numbers at this season." 



The native name is Kuaka ; in the summer plumage it is called Kura, in allusion to its rich 

 rufous colour. 



Dr. Forbes, in his ' Bulletin,' treats this as a sub-species of Limosa lapponica; but Dr. Sharpe 

 accords it, as I think rightly, full specific rank in his ' Handlist.' 



There is a good series of specimens in the British Museum, and likewise in the fine collec- 

 tion of birds at Liverpool. 



Mr. Seebohm summarises his account of this species by saying that the eastern colony of 

 Bar-tailed Godwits pass the coasts of Japan, Manchuria, and China on migration, and winter in 

 the islands of the Malay Archipelago, Australia, the New Hebrides, Norfolk Island and New 



Zealand. 



Middendorf* gives a coloured figure of the egg of this Godwit, but he does not describe it, nor 

 does he furnish any account of the nest, merely mentioning that it is very hard to find on the 

 marshy meadows of the tundras. As represented in the plate, it is broadly ovate, measuring 2*2 

 inches in length by 1*5 in greatest breadth, and is of a dusky olive colour with numerous irregular 

 spots over the entire surface. 



Mr. Dall, who found a nest containing two eggs at Kutlik, Alaska, states that it was merely 

 a rounded depression in a sedge tussock with a lining of dry grasses. Messrs. Baird, Brewer and 

 Bidgway describe two eggs in their possession as of deep greenish drab and pale drab respectively 

 in the ground colour, the blotches on the former being of' a dilute umber and much more pro- 

 nounced in the second specimen. 



* Midd. Sibir. Eeiss, Yog., pi. xix., fig. 5. 



