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Order CHABADKIIFOKMES.] 



[Family CHAEADRITDiE. 



LI.M08A HUDSONICA. 



(EBD-BEEASTED GODWIT.) 



Scolopax hudsonica, Latham, Ind. Orn., vol. ii., p. 720 (1790). 



An example was shot by Mr. Edgar Stead at Lake Ellesmere, and referred to this species 

 by Captain Hutton, the identification of which was afterwards confirmed at the British Museum. 

 This being an interesting discovery was thus chronicled in the Canterbury Press : — 



A Strange Visitor. — In pursuit of his efforts to furnish the authorities of the British Museum with a 

 complete collection of the birds of New Zealand and the adjacent islands, Lord Eanfurly some little time ago 

 enlisted the services of Mr. Edgar Stead, who has an extensive knowledge of the birds of this Colony and their 

 habits. Armed with a permit from his Excellency, Mr. Stead therefore spent some days lately in the vicinity 

 of Lake Ellesmere, and among the specimens he secured was one undoubted prize — a bird which he recognised 

 as one of the Godwit family, but which differed in many respects from the Godwits usually found in New 

 Zealand. The bird was shot near the mouth of the Selwyn Biver, and from its manner of flight, Mr. Stead 

 believed it was setting out on the long journey which is undertaken by the Godwits, and is one of the marvels 

 of animal migration. 



Captain Hutton, curator of the Christchurch Museum, who has seen the specimen, says that, as far as he 

 knows, the bird has never before been obtained in New Zealand. He thinks that the bird is a specimen of the 

 American Godwit, although it does, not agree exactly with the descriptions given of that bird, for the tail is 

 tipped with white, and the bill and legs do not answer precisely to the descriptions. These birds, however 

 change their plumage very much at different seasons, and the divergence may thus be accounted for. There are 

 no specimens of the American Godwit in New Zealand with which the present bird can be compared, but there 

 is a good collection in the British Museum available for comparison, and the experts there, to whom it is 

 to be sent, will be able to identify it with little difficulty. Assuming that it is an American Godwit, 

 Captain Hutton points out the extreme difficulty of explaining how the bird got into New Zealand. These 

 Godwits breed in Alaska and Canada, and migrate backwards and forwards up and down the American 

 Continent from Alaska and Canada to as far down as Patagonia. No specimen of this species has ever been 

 seen or obtained in Australia, so that it seems strange that this particular bird could have crossed over from 

 Alaska to Siberia and so down through the East to Australia, and thence to New Zealand. On the other 

 hand, it is impossible to believe that the bird could have flown here across the Pacific, ' by the San Francisco 

 route,' as it were, for Captain Hutton says the maximum distance that these birds can, it is believed, accom- 

 plish at one flight is 2,000 miles. However, Captain Hutton points out that it is useless speculating as to 

 how the bird came to New Zealand, until it is proved that it is an American Godwit. The presence of 

 one bird in the Colony indicates that there are, or were, others here. 



Writing of this species Mr. Seebohm says : 



The American Black-tailed Godwit, or Hudsonian Godwit, as it is called by the American ornithologists, 

 may always be recognised by its dark brown axillaries and under wing-coverts. It breeds on the tundras of 

 North America, above the limit of forest-growth, from Alaska to Baffin's Bay, but it is said to be very rare at 

 the western extremity of its range. In autumn it migrates southwards and crosses the tropics to winter in the 

 temperate parts of South America, where it has been obtained as far south as the Falkland Islands. 



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